Court of Appeals nixes Zaldy Ampatuan’s plea to avoid trial

The Court of Appeals has struck down the bid of detained former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan to avoid indictment in connection with the murder of 58 people in Maguindanao two years ago.

Voting 4-1, the appellate court’s Special Panel ruled that then Justice Secretary Alberto Agra did not commit a grave abuse of discretion when he issued his May 5, 2010, resolution reinstating Ampatuan as a primary accused in the multiple murder case.

The assailed resolution reversed Agra’s own April 16, 2010, order absolving Ampatuan of any complicity in the Nov. 23, 2009, massacre allegedly orchestrated by his then powerful clan.

“We cannot overly emphasize that full discretionary authority to determine probable cause in a preliminary investigation… rests in the executive branch,” said the ruling penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam.

“Courts cannot substitute the executive branch’s judgment,” it added.

The 40-page decision was promulgated by the five-member panel on Tuesday but released to the media only yesterday.

Concurring in Tijam’s decision were Associate Justices Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente, Romeo Barza and Jose Reyes Jr. Associate Justice Mario Guarina III, panel chair, dissented.

In upholding Agra’s decision, the Court of Appeals said the nature of a preliminary hearing “is essentially inquisitorial and its function is merely to determine the existence of probable cause.”

Ampatuan had claimed that Agra’s decision reinstating him as a respondent in the criminal case violated his right to due process since the Department of Justice did not give him an opportunity to answer the accusations of Abdul Talusan.

Talusan’s testimony supported the earlier one of witness Kenny Dalandag who recalled seeing Ampatuan at a clan meeting on the eve of the massacre.

During the meeting, Dalandag said, he heard the family patriarch, former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., order his sons Zaldy and Andal Jr. to carry out the killings.