18-yr-old suspect in Maguindanao massacre moved to youth home

A Quezon City judge allowed one of the accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre to stay in a youth home until he could post an P11-million bail, noting that he was still a minor at the time of the grisly murders.

The ruling was carried out three days after a police suspect in the massacre committed suicide, reportedly because of depression, at the Camp Bagong Diwa detention facility in Taguig City.

Now aged 18, the young suspect who was described in the case as a militiaman, was brought to the Molave Youth Home also in Quezon City Thursday morning, the Inquirer learned from his defense lawyer Andres Manuel.

In a five-page order, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 reversed her previous order denying bail for the accused, who was 16 at the time of the murders.

“Accordingly, movant is allowed to be released on recognizance to his parents and other suitable persons … or to be released on bail upon posting of the required bail,” Reyes said in her Feb. 6 ruling.

Members of the powerful Ampatuan clan and its private army in Maguindanao province mostly make up the 196 people indicted for the election-related slaughter of 58 people, including 32 media workers, on Nov. 23, 2009.