Can’t walk, says Ampatuan grandson; yes, you can, say gov’t lawyers

State prosecutors handling the 2009 Maguindanao massacre case have asked a Quezon City court to deny the request of one of the accused, a grandson of alleged mastermind Andal Ampatuan Sr., to undergo a medical checkup outside his detention center at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

The government panel led by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Ma. Emilia Victorio argued that Datu Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan Jr.’s urgent motion for a medical examination should be denied due to lack of merit.

The prosecution said the request lacked any basis as there was no medical certificate or abstract detailing the young Ampatuan’s condition that would require an out-patient examination.

“There is no explanation why accused-movant cannot be examined within the jail premises by government physicians as has been the request of the prosecution early on,” the panel said in a three-page comment submitted to Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

The accused, through lawyer Emmanuel Brotarlo, claimed that he could not walk due to his swollen left leg and asked that he be treated at the state-run Philippine General Hospital.

Ampatuan Jr. said he injured his leg in an explosion in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, in March last year.

The prosecution, however, argued that as early as September 2012, the accused was already able to walk.

The families of the 58 massacre victims, including 32 media practitioners, are set to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the mass murders on Nov. 23.

The massacre was considered by many as the worst election-related violence and media killing anywhere in the world, allegedly perpetrated by the then well-entrenched political clan of the Ampatuans of Maguindanao province, a key Mindanao ally of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Most of the victims were part of the convoy of then Ampatuan town Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, who was about to challenge the Ampatuans in the gubernatorial elections. Julie M. Aurelio