Another Ampatuan seeks court leave for daughter’s graduation

File photo taken on Nov. 25, 2009, shows police forensic officers trying to identify the bodies of dozens of victims of the worst political violence in the Philippines’ history. INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—One of the Ampatuans accused of multiple murder in the Maguindanao massacre case is asking a Quezon City court to let him attend his daughter’s graduation next month.

Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Jr., son-in-law and nephew of clan patriarch Andal Sr., is seeking court permission to go to his daughter’s graduation at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on July 6.

The accused filed the two-page motion through his lawyer Paris Real before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

In his pleading, Akmad said his daughter Sharmaine Reham will graduate with a degree in consular and diplomatic affairs. He said he would return to his detention cell at the Quezon City Jail Annex in Camp Bagong Diwa after the graduation.

“As a father and human being, Datu Tato wants to personally attend said very significant and once in a lifetime activity of his daughter,” the motion read.

Akmad is among five Ampatuans who have not yet been arraigned on 58 counts of murder in connection with the  November 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre. The other Ampatuans yet to be arraigned are: Sajid Islam, Anwar Sr., Anwar Ipi, and Anwar Sajid Ulo.

Their arraignment has been deferred pending resolution of various pleadings before the court.

Earlier, the court denied a similar request from former Governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to attend his son’s graduation.

The court noted that attending a graduation was not in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology guidelines on the movement and transfer of detainees.