Judge orders release of another wrong suspect in Maguindanao massacre

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – A Quezon City court has freed another man it found to have been mistakenly arrested two years ago in connection with the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 ordered the release of Rene Matuti, ruling that he was not the Dexson Saptula charged with 58 counts of murder along with nearly 200 other people, including members of the influential Ampatuan clan, implicated in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.

In a four-page order, the court directed Senior Inspector Reuben Olivo, warden of the Quezon City Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City to release Matuti.

In a motion to dismiss the charges against him, Matuti’s lawyer, Laguindab Marohombsar, argued that his client was not the Saptula named on the charge sheet along with 194 other accused.

Copurt records show that Matuti had been arraigned as Saptula on 58 counts of murder.

Matuti was arrested by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police in Region 12 on July 18, 2012. But in November 2013, the court received another notice that Mohammad Adam a.k.a. Saptula was arrested on Nov. 9, 2013.

The CIDG eventually submitted a report to the court that Adam was the real Saptula, noting that there was no affidavit of identification pointing to Matuti as Saptula.

Adam was identified as the real Saptula on the basis of affidavits of identification made by two witnesses and old photographs from the local police’s most wanted rogues’ gallery.
“Given the admission made by the CIDG… it behooves this Court to see to it that no injustice is done to an innocent man like Rene Matuti. Ergo, the latter must be set free,” Judge Reyes said in her ruling.

She also issued a commitment order for Mohammad Adam, who is still detained in Maguindanao, to be transferred to the jail in Taguig.

The court had earlier released accused Jun Aliman, who was erroneously arrested as Sahid Guiamadel. The real Guiamadel is Arnel Abdullah, who was arrested in February 2012 in connection with another offense.

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