Arraignment of 2 massacre suspects ordered

MANILA, Philippines–A Quezon City court has ordered the arraignment of two accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre after junking their requests to be released from detention and for a review of the multiple murder charges on the claim that they were arrested by authorities on mistaken identity.

Quezon City regional trial court branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes said in her seven-page July 11 order that the allegation of mistaken identity raised by accused Jun Aliman, who is also known as Sahid Guiamadel, and Abdulkadir Saludin, Kasim Lingkong, is a matter of defense best threshed out in a full blown trial.

She set their arraignment for 58 counts of murder on August 7 at the Quezon City Jail annex in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

In his requests for immediate release from detention and for the enforcement of an arrest warrant against Sahid Guiamadel, Aliman claimed that he was mistakenly arrested on December 14, 2011 by Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) policemen as Guiamadel, an accused in the November 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Aliman alleged that he was never a member of a civilian volunteer organization (CVO) particularly in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao, unlike Guiamadel, and said he worked as a secretary in Barangay (village) Pikeg of the town. He added that he was employed as a security guard of the North Cotabato Provincial government at the time of his arrest.

He claimed that he should be released from detention on the ground of mistaken identity and illegal arrest. He subsequently urged the court to enforce the arrest warrant issued against “the real” Guiamadel whom he alleged was arrested on February last year in Barangay Udtong, Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat for illegal possession of firearms and explosives under the name Arnel Bacar Abdullah.

For his part Saludin claimed he was mistaken for Lingkong, an accused in the November 23, 2009 slaughter of 58 persons in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman near Ampatuan town, and that the Midsayap, Cotabato regional trial court branch 24 had issued on January 30 last year the writ of habeas corpus ordering his release from detention.

He invoked his right to judicial determination of probable cause since no preliminary investigation was conducted against him.

Reyes ruled that the motions filed by the accused are “bereft of merit.”

She said, “The main and common issue presented in both motions is the identity of the detainees vis-a-vis the accused on record in these cases. Both movants claim that they are not the accused named in the information as well as the warrants of arrest/commitment orders issued.”

Reyes said that the documents that the accused submitted to support their claim of mistaken identity “are pieces of evidence which cannot be given probative value as yet lest this court be blamed for prematurely deciding the merits of these cases. The allegations of the movants constitute matters of defense which should not be resolved in a preliminary hearing but should be considered in a full-blown trial.”

She added that there is always a presumption of regularity in the performance of official duties of policemen unless the contrary is proved by evidence during the trial.

“It is presumed that before the police authorities effected the arrest of the movants, they had actually ascertained the identity of the person named in the warrant of arrest. Thus, there is no cogent reason for this court to grant the reliefs being prayed for by the movants,” the judge ruled.

She further explained in denying Saludin’s request for judicial determination of probable cause that it was already determined by the court in several orders it issued, including its issuance of an arrest warrant against him.