Arraignment of Maguindanao massacre suspect urged

State prosecutors have asked a Quezon City court to immediately set the arraignment of an accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre who had claimed he was mistakenly arrested as a perpetrator of the carnage.

The panel of state prosecutors, headed by Archimedes Manabat, argued in their six-page motion filed before Quezon City Regional Trial Court 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 the 195 accused in the massacre of 58 persons.

The man authorities arrested as Masukat had said it was a case of mistaken identity and claimed that he was in fact Talembo Abdulrahman.

His scheduled arraignment last month was deferred after he asked Reyes to abide by the Cotabato City Regional Trial Court Branch 13 issuance of a writ of habeas corpus based on an acknowledgment of the mistake on his identity when he was arrested.

The state prosecutors argued that 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’ Feb. 19 commitment order.

In a previous motion, Masukat said there was a clear finding of mistaken identity by the Cotabato City RTC, which issued the writ of habeas corpus after declaring his detention illegal.

Abdurahman, whom authorities said was also known as Talembo Masukat, was the 101st of the 195 accused to be arrested for the Nov. 23, 2009, massacre in Sitio (settlement) Masalay, Barangay (village) Salman near Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province.

He was arrested on Feb. 16 after he and several other armed men allegedly engaged in a firefight with members of the Army 45th Infantry Battalion at Barangay Manungkaling, Mamasapano town in Maguindanao.

The soldiers turned him over to the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on an alias warrant of arrest for Talembo Masukat.—Jeannette I. Andrade