INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City court has allowed a backhoe operator tagged in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre to be detained in Camp Crame given the security risk of holding him with the other accused at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
In a two-page order, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 granted the prosecution’s bid to separate Bong Andal from the rest of the accused as his continued detention in the same facility may endanger his life as state witness.
On Nov. 28, state prosecutor Aristotle Reyes in open court sought for Andal’s continued stay at the Philippine National Police custodial center.
“Notwithstanding the opposition of the defense and pending the filing before the court of the appropriate motion or resolution, the accused may be temporarily detained at the PNP custodial center,” the court said.
Primary suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. and many others accused in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre are detained in Taguig City while on trial.
During a hearing on Nov. 28, defense lawyers Philip Sigfrid Fortun and Paris Real opposed Andal’s seclusion from the rest of the accused, arguing that his conversion as state witness must comply with the rules, which does not give license for the prosecution to treat an accused differently from the others.
The defense added that granting the prosecution’s motion might prejudge the validity of the application for conversion as state witness.
The court ordered the prosecution to file within 15 days the appropriate motion for the conversion of Andal as state witness with his affidavit attached to it and to furnish the defense panel with a copy.
The defense was also given the same period to file their respective comments.
Andal, an employee of the Maguindanao provincial government, is tagged as the operator of the backhoe used to bury the 58 massacre victims, 32 of whom were media workers, and their convoy of vehicles in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.