Despite Maguindanao massacre conviction, Palace notes ‘serious flaws’ in justice system

Andal Ampatuan Jr., left, a former town mayor who oversaw and led the killings, waits with co-accused during promulgation at a court inside a prison facility at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City on Thursday. (SC-PIO  via AP)

MANILA, Philippines — The Palace on Saturday said there are still “serious flaws” in the country’s justice system that needs to be rectified despite the resolution of the decade-old Maguindanao massacre case.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that while the efforts of the prosecution in the case are commended, “an analysis of the court’s judgment shows that 10 years of what could have been productive lives of fifty-six acquitted accused have been wasted in incarceration.”

Panelo said that during their time in jail, their families have become dysfunctional as they bear the stigma and humiliation attached to being accused of involvement in the 2009 mass killing that horrified the world.

“This is an injustice that cannot be countenanced nor continue. It must not find print ever again in the pages of our history as a nation,” Panelo said in a statement.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes on Thursday sentenced eight members of the Ampatuan family led by former town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 20 others to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of 57 people, including 32 journalists.

The judge acquitted more than 50 police officers and other members of the Ampatuan family, citing a lack of evidence, while 15 people were given 6- to 10-year prison terms as accomplices.

Panelo noted that a major cause for the “aberration” is the filing of charges before the court “even if the evidence presented before the investigating public prosecutor cannot sustain a conviction of an accused of a crime to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“The hasty and heedless filing of an information is due either to the faulty appreciation of evidence by — or the fear of — the investigating prosecutor to be subjected to an administrative sanction or get a reprisal from the complainant if the case is dismissed at the preliminary investigation stage,” Panelo said.

These cases, Panelo said, are not isolated as he noted the hundreds of similar pending cases.

“The blindfolded Lady Justice symbolizes an impartial proceeding without regard to the social and political status of those haled before the mighty and unforgiving arm of the law, uninfluenced by the torrent of adverse people’s judgment,” Panelo said.

“The government, forever unaffected and unmoved by the infectious winds of public opinion, must pursue and protect this ideal,” he added.

Further, Panelo said that aside from the years of innocence wasted for the acquitted persons, hours of effort have also gone to waste.

“This is one lesson we must all learn lest we repeat the same grievous error at the cost of liberty and honor of the innocents,” the spokesperson said.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology reported Friday that 42 of the 46 acquitted persons jailed at the Quezon City Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City have been freed, explaining that those who have yet to be released still have pending cases.

The 10 remaining acquitted persons not detained at the Quezon City Jail Annex are in the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

With AP