Prosecutors urge QC court not to delay Zaldy Ampatuan’s arraignment

Former ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Prosecutors are urging a Quezon City court to set aside its earlier decision deferring former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan’s arraignment last month for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

The panel led by state prosecutor Peter Medalle claimed the court admitted the accused’s motion for leave to file his appeal on his arraignment despite the lack of justification for the belated filing.

The motion for reconsideration being referred to was Ampatuan’s pleading on April 18 asking the court to reverse its April 2 order setting his arraignment on April 26.

The prosecution lodged its appeal over the deferment of the ex-ARMM governor’s arraignment before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

The court earlier ordered Ampatuan’s arraignment after junking his appeals filed in 2010 due to lack of merit.

But during a hearing on April 25, Reyes granted the accused’s motion for leave to file motion for reconsideration and deferred his arraignment pending the resolution of his new appeal.

In their pleading, the prosecutors said the accused’s motion contains a mere rehash of the arguments he had raised before the Court of Appeals.

The prosecutors noted that the appellate court had already denied Ampatuan’s motion for reinvestigation, affirming a Nov. 8, 2011 ruling of the Department of Justice finding probable cause to indict him for the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

According to the prosecution panel, there are only three grounds allowed by the rules for the suspension of arraignment.

They pointed out that “the pendency of a petition for certiorari or a motion for reconsideration before the Court of Appeals or any appellate court is not among the grounds for suspension of an arraignment.”

The prosecutors also asked the court to junk Ampatuan’s motion for reconsideration and expunge it from the record for being filed belatedly.

The ex-ARMM governor is one of 196 accused of 57 counts of murder for the grisly Maguindanao massacre.