Court junks bid vs indictment of 2 Ampatuans in massacre case

MANILA—A Quezon City court has thrown out the petitions of two Ampatuans challenging their indictment for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre for which they have not yet been arraigned.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 dismissed for lack of merit the petitions of Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr. and Sajid Islam Ampatuan.

Akmad is a son-in-law and nephew of clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. while Sajid Islam is a son of Andal Sr. and is the brother of principal accused Andal Ampatuan Jr.

The court denied the two accused’s separate pleadings in a four-page omnibus order dated June 6. It said the accused’s arguments had already been raised in earlier motions which the court had denied.

The two Ampatuans are challenging the court’s ruling allowing the prosecution to include their names on the list of the accused.

Reyes, in her order, pointed out that the court has ruled on the existence of probable cause to hold the accused, including Akmad and Sajid Islam, liable for 58 counts of murder.

“There is no cogent reason to discuss the same considering that it had already discussed its reasons in denying the previous motions,” the court pointed out.

The two were among the five arrested Ampatuans who have not yet been arraigned, the others being Anwar Sr., his sons Anwar Sajid “Ulo” and Anwar “Ipi” Jr.

In his May 2011 omnibus motion, Sajid Islam alleged that there was  no legal or factual basis to charge him since there was an implied admission that he was not at the crime scene during the the killings.

The accused said the only basis for the filing of charges was the alleged perjured affidavit of prosecution witness Kenny Dalandag.

For his part, Akmad claimed in a Sept. 2011 motion that there was no evidence showing his participation and that Dalandag never mentioned his name in his affidavit.