SC orders all Maute cases moved to Taguig

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to try all criminal cases stemming from the bloody siege of Marawi City by Islamic State-inspired militants.

Theodore Te, the high court’s spokesperson, said the magistrates arrived at the decision during its weekly en banc session.

Request granted

“The court … designated the [RTC] … in Taguig City, instead of the [RTC] in Cagayan de Oro City, to speedily act on all prosecutions and incidents arising from the violent incidents in Marawi City involving the Maute group,” Te told a news briefing.

The 15-member tribunal also granted Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II’s request to transfer the detention of arrested Maute group members and their supporters from a military camp in Cagayan de Oro City to the Special Intensive Care Area in Camp Bagong Diwa, also in Taguig.

Aguirre, who had sought the creation of a special court outside of Mindanao to try all Maute-related cases, expressed elation over the court’s decision.

Security concerns

“That is great news for the DOJ (Department of Justice) and its panels of prosecutors in Cagayan de Oro,” Aguirre said in a text
message.

“It will solve a lot of problems, like where the detainees are to be confined and whether we are going to rent a new place to hold the inquests and conduct preliminary investigations,” he said.

In seeking the transfer of the cases, Aguirre had raised the security concerns of judges and state prosecutors assigned to hear the rebellion charges and other criminal charges filed against the terrorists.

‘Final push’

More than 550 people, including over 400 militants, have been killed in nearly two months of fighting in Marawi, officials said.

Troops were bracing for a “final push” to finally flush out remnants of the Maute group still holed up in some parts of the lakeside city, officials said.