Workers put finishing touches to a shrine where 58 Filipinos, most of them journalists, died in the infamous Maguindanao massacre. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – State prosecutors have asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to immediately set the arraignment of an accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre who had claimed that he was mistakenly arrested as one of the perpetrators of the carnage.
The panel of state prosecutors, headed by Archimedes Manabat, argued in their six-page motion filed before Quezon City RTC Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes that there was no legal basis for deferring the arraignment of former Mamasapano town councilman Talembo Masukat, one of 195 accused in the massacre of 58 persons.
The man that authorities have arrested as Masukat has been crying mistaken identity and has claimed being Talembo Abdulrahman. His scheduled arraignment in May was deferred after he asked Judge Reyes to abide by the Cotabato City regional trial court branch 13’s issuance of a writ of habeas corpus based on an acknowledgment of the mistake on his identity when he was arrested.
State prosecutors argued against the Quezon City court’s taking judicial notice of its Cotabato City counterpart’s ruling on the aspect of mistaken identity saying, “Identity is a matter of defense best heard in a full-blown trial.”
They added that there was a clear legal basis for the continued detention of Masukat at the Quezon City jail annex at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City in Reyes’ February 19 commitment order.
In a previous motion, Masukat claimed a clear finding of mistaken identity by the Cotabato City regional trial court, which therefore declared his detention illegal and issued the writ of habeas corpus.
Abdurrahman, whom authorities claimed is also known as Talembo Masukat, is the 101st of 195 accused to be arrested for the Nov. 23, 2009 carnage at Sitio Masalay, Barangay (village) Salman near Ampatuan town in Maguindanao Province.
He was arrested on February 16 after he and several other armed men allegedly engaged in a firefight with members of the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion at Barangay Manungkaling, Mamasapano town in Maguindanao. The soldiers turned him over to the custody of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on an alias warrant of arrest for Talembo Masukat.
Judge Reyes then issued an order to commit him to the detention facility in Taguig City based on the return of warrant submitted by the arresting unit.
Meanwhile, Talembo Masukat, who carries a P300,000 bounty, was a trusted aide of Mamasapano town mayor Bahnarin Ampatuan, another accused in the massacre and grandson of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. He also worked as a driver for the ex-governor’s eldest daughter, Bai Rebecca Ampatuan.
Masukat was identified by Datu Abdullah Sangki town councilor Mohammad Sangki as the person who relayed to him the alleged plan to block the Mangudadatu convoy and who deployed on November 19, several days before the massacre, a dozen members of a civilian auxiliary unit to a checkpoint at Crossing Saniag in Sitio (sub-village) Masalay, Ampatuan town.