Ampatuan perjury complaint junked

Andal Ampatuan Sr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office has junked a perjury complaint filed by Andal Ampatuan Sr. against a police official who is a prosecution witness in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Assistant City Prosecutor Nanette Austria noted that the credibility of Insp. Rex Ariel Diongon is already being determined by the court.

Austria said in a resolution released this week that it is up to the court to ascertain whether Diongon should be held criminally liable for making a “deliberate distortion of truth” on his five affidavits.

The prosecutor dismissed the perjury raps against the police official, who is among the 196 charged for multiple murder, for lack of probable cause.

The complaint stemmed from Ampatuan’s claims that Diongon, a member of the 1508th Provincial Mobile Group in Maguindanao, made false claims in five affidavits he executed in connection to the gruesome killings.

The affidavits were dated Nov. 25 and 29 and Dec. 5 in 2009, and Jan. 12 and 25 in 2010.

Diongon had testified before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 that he was among those manning a checkpoint that blocked the victims’ convoy on Nov. 23, 2009.

He also claimed that he was present in a meeting at an Ampatuan house four days before the killings and that he was given P15,000. He also allegedly heard Andal Jr. plotting the crime.