Massacre victims’ kin hail SC denial of bail for Zaldy Ampatuan

The names of 32 journalists, among the 58 victims ambushed and killed by armed men associated with the Ampatuan clan, are inscribed on a wall of the National Press Club in Manila. (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Emily Lopez, president of Justice Now Movement, the association of families of media victims of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, has lauded the Supreme Court for denying bail to former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan.

“We are glad that the Supreme Court stood on the side of justice by denying Ampatuan’s bail petition,” Lopez told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

Ampatuan is among the principal accused in the grisly incident on November 23, 2009 that claimed 58 lives, 32 of whom were media workers.

Lopez said there are enough pieces of evidence pointing to the participation of Zaldy and other members of the Ampatuan clan in planning and executing the plan to kill all those in a convoy of supporters of then Buluan, Maguindanao Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, who was filing his candidacy for Maguindanao governor.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 denied Ampatuan’s bid for bail in 2015. It was affirmed by the Court of Appeals last year.

Lopez expressed hopes that all the suspects, particularly the principal ones, will be convicted for the crime.

The case has already been submitted for decision by government prosecutors. /kga