NOT GUILTY PLEA. Andal Ampatuan Sr. pleads not guilty in Maguindanao massacre. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Ampatuan clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to the charge of multiple murder in connection with the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
Andal Sr. is the second Ampatuan to be arraigned.
Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu told reporters: “I am happy seeing him in handcuffs. He is now paying for what he did before.”
After Andal Sr. pleaded not guilty, relatives of the victims jeered which prompted Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to warn the relatives to keep quiet or she will order them out of the courtroom.
Defense counsel Sigfried Fortun asked the court not to allow the relatives to stay inside the court.
“The Court will allow them to stay on condition that they will keep quiet,” Judge Reyes said.
“The fact that Atty. Nena Santos was with them looks like she encouraged it. She did not do anything…it was a chorus. This is total travesty,” Fortun told the court.
Fortun and Assistant Regional State Prosecutors Peter Medalla also had an argument after Fortun said that the raucous behavior of the victims’ relatives happened despite the presence of Medalla.
Mangudadatu said the victim’s reaction was normal.
“We cannot blame them. Like me, they all lost a loved one,” Mangudadatu said.
His brother, Khadaffy Mangudadatu, also said that “we cannot blame the relatives of the victims; likewise we cannot also blame Atty. Fortun. He is only protecting his client. But we should all be civil about it.”
The arraignment took place at the makeshift courtroom at the Quezon City Jail Annex inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City where Andal Sr. is detained.
Aside from the patriarch, sharing the cell inside Camp Bagong Diwa include his son former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Rizaldy Ampatuan, former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., former Shariff Aguak mayor Datu Anwar Ampatuan, former vice governor Datu Sajid Ampatuan, and former Mamasapano mayor Akmad Ampatuan.
Aside from the six, also detained in the jail annex are the rest of the 90 suspects who have been arrested.
There are at least 196 suspects believed involved in the murder of 57 people, including 32 media workers, on November 23, 2009 in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town.
Originally posted 10:01 am | Wednesday, June 1st, 2011