New Ampatuan lawyer says he won’t lie for clients

Former Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao province has a new lawyer in the person of Salvador Panelo.

Ampatuan is accused of leading a heavily armed group that killed without mercy 58 people—including 32 journalists, several women and passing motorists—on a highway in Ampatuan town in 2009.

His corespondents in the gruesome mass murder are his father, former Gov. Andal Sr. of Maguindanao province, and brother, former Gov. Zaldy of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Panelo wants to prove to the court that the Ampatuans were “framed.”

“I listened to their story and I accepted the case not for money. They are poor now. Someone has to take up the cudgels for them,” he said.

Panelo insists the Ampatuans are innocent despite all the evidence stacked up against them.

According to him, he agreed to take on the case because of the challenge it poses.

“But one thing is for sure; I will not lie for my client (Andal Jr.),” said Panelo.

Yeah, right!

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Malacañang has hailed the 32 journalists who were killed along with 26 others in Maguindanao five years ago as “martyrs.”

The Palace should go beyond words in honoring the 32 journalists; words are cheap.

The families of the fallen journalists, as well as those in the journalism profession, don’t need flattery.

What they want is justice—prompt and fair.

Malacañang could instruct prosecutors from the Department of Justice to do their best in fast-tracking the case against the Ampatuans.

That’s the real tribute it can give to the fallen journalists.

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Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, one of the three senators leading the investigation into the alleged irregularities at Makati City Hall, complains that as much as P20 million is being dangled by the camp of Vice President Jojo Binay to suppliers for any information about anomalous projects in Taguig City.

The incumbent Taguig mayor is Cayetano’s wife, Lani.

Cayetano has nothing to fear if his wife is not corrupt.

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The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is again in the news as recent footage taken by a closed circuit television camera showed instances of visiting rules at the National Bilibid Prison being violated.

The low salaries of BuCor guards are being blamed for their laxity in dealing with high profile prisoners, especially convicted drug lords, who they allow to smuggle drugs or cell phones into the national penitentiary.

It’s an open secret that drug lords use cell phones to let them keep on managing their syndicates’ operations even behind bars.

BuCor Director Franklin Bucayu, who has been caught sleeping on the job in the past, is again in the spotlight.

Why is the guy untouchable?