Zaldy Ampatuan plan to turn witness off; Palace cool to scheme

The deal was called off even before it was finalized.

Members of the legal team of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan on Thursday said their jailed client was no longer planning to turn state witness to pin down his father and brother Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Jr. in the Maguindanao massacre case.

Zaldy Ampatuan’s lawyers had planned to make the announcement this week that he would become a hostile witness but the idea was scuttled because President Aquino and senior members of his Cabinet were cool to the offer, according to a government source.

On the phone with the Inquirer, Ampatuan lawyer Kristine Esguerra said the former governor’s turning state witness “will be impossible since it will mean he is the least guilty or somewhat guilty.”

“The governor has maintained his innocence of the crime. From conception to execution, the governor had no participation whatsoever,” she said.

Esguerra issued the denial amid persistent talk that Zaldy Ampatuan’s camp had sent feelers to Malacañang through Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo that he would apply for inclusion in the Department of Justice’s witness protection program to clinch the massacre case for the government.

But the government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that in accepting Zaldy Ampatuan as a state witness, the President wanted no conditions imposed on the government.

The source said top Cabinet officials had also warned Mr. Aquino against accepting Zaldy Ampatuan as a state witness because, they said, there was no guarantee that his testimony would convict his father and brother.

The Cabinet officials were also purportedly wary that the testimony could even jeopardize the case.

Informal meetings

The source claimed that Zaldy Ampatuan’s lawyers had met informally with government officials in the past weeks to brief them on what he was willing to say in court, and that the former governor’s gambit was an effort to save the family legacy.

The government, however, wanted him to leave nothing out in his testimony and to identify all of the family’s ill-gotten assets as well as the deals hatched between the family and its patron, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the source said.

But Redemberto Villanueva, another of Zaldy Ampatuan’s lawyers, reiterated his denial that his client was about to turn state witness against the other accused in the massacre of at least 57 civilians, including 32 media workers, on Nov. 23, 2009, in Maguindanao.

Villanueva insisted that his client had no knowledge of the planning of the massacre and the actual killings.

“We cannot lie. We do not tell our clients to lie,” Villanueva said after Thursday’s hearing of the case.

Asked about the reported rift between Zaldy Ampatuan and his father, the lawyer said: “That was six months ago. They are now together. They are [detained] in one building. ”

He said Ampatuan Sr. and the former governor had a relationship like any other “father and son,” and declined to reply when asked if the ties between the two men were now cordial or civil.

‘We don’t need him’

During a break in the hearing at Camp Bagong Diwa’s maximum security prison in Taguig City, private prosecutor Nena Santos said the prosecution had enough witnesses and did not need Zaldy Ampatuan’s testimony to win the case.

“In so far as we are concerned, we don’t need his testimony especially if it’s only to exculpate himself … We don’t need him,” said Santos, counsel of the Mangudadatus.

“We have many witnesses to prove that there was conspiracy,” she said.

Santos said that if ever Zaldy Ampatuan would implicate a “big fish,” it would concern other cases. And as of yesterday, she said, there was still no formal offer from his camp for him to testify for the prosecution.

“These are rumors. All these reports [that he will be turning state witness] are still speculation because we have not received any [formal] offer,” she said.

But if Zaldy Ampatuan does formally apply to become a government witness, the prosecution panel will review his testimony.

“It will depend on his proposed testimony. All of the accused have a right to apply to become a government witness,” Santos said. “We will look into the materiality of his proposed testimony, if there is any.”

Let him prove it

Some members of the House of Representatives weighed in on the purported plan for Zaldy Ampatuan to turn state witness.

Said Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez: “One of the conditions is that the applicant is the least guilty and his testimony is necessary for the conviction of the others principally accused. There are many witnesses with direct testimonies here, so Zaldy is not necessary.”

Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, vice chair of the House committee on justice, said it was up to Zaldy Ampatuan to prove that he deserved to be a state witness and that his testimony was crucial to convict the accused.

Rep. Neri Colmenares of party-list group, Bayan Muna, said the evidence in the case was so overwhelming as to make the former governor’s testimony superfluous.

Colmenares said what the case needed was a quicker pace in the proceedings so that a verdict would be reached as soon as possible.

Medical condition

Villanueva disputed reports that Zaldy Ampatuan had moved to another prison cell because of a quarrel with his father.

“It has nothing to do with that. He was transferred because of his medical condition. These are just rumors,” the lawyer said.

Villanueva on Thursday asked Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to allow his client to stay at St. Luke’s Medical Center for at least five days for 12 medical tests for diabetes and another 12 for high blood pressure.

Reyes gave the prosecution until Friday to submit a formal comment.

“[My client] needs at least five days because there are preparations that have to be made for each test, and these could last for eight to 12 hours,” Villanueva said.

“He has shortness of breath. We are concerned that it might become worse and so we have to bring him to the hospital because the doctors need special equipment to conduct these tests,” the lawyer said. But Santos was not impressed.

“He’s a flight risk. And with all these rumors, the timing of his motion is suspect,” she said. “We will insist that he be arraigned first.”

Santos also said that if the former governor really needed to be examined for his ailments, the tests could be conducted in the maximum security prison.