Immediate arraignment Zaldy Ampatuan urged

Former ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Prosecutors handling the Maguindanao massacre case urged a Quezon City court to immediately arraign Zaldy Ampatuan following a Supreme Court ruling affirming the charges against him.

The panel led by deputy state prosecutor Peter Medalle said that with the ruling, there is no hindrance to the arraignment of the former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In its reiterative motion, the prosecution also asked Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 to deny Ampatuan’s pending appeal on a March 29 order setting his arraignment.

“For the wheels of justice to start running, accused should now be arraigned so as to allow him as with the other co-accused who have long submitted themselves on the court’s jurisdiction to finally face the evidence against him head on during the trials on the merits,” the pleading said.

Attached was a notice of the Supreme Court Third Division’s decision, affirming the reinstatement of murder charges against Ampatuan by the Department of Justice.

Ampatuan, a son of clan patriarch and accused Andal Sr. and a brother of primary accused Andal Jr., is among the 195 charged for the deaths of 57 people on Nov. 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province. The body of the 58th reported victim, journalist Reynaldo Momay, has not been found but his personal effects were.

With the denial of Ampatuan’s petition for review, Medalle said the Supreme Court has affirmed the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeals which also recognized the DOJ’s finding of probable cause against the former ARMM governor.

The lead prosecutor added that there is no legal impediment to Ampatuan’s arraignment for 57 counts of murder in relation to the Maguindanao massacre, considered the worst case of election-related violence in the country’s history.

“There is now no more justifiable cause for the deferment of accused’s arraignment. And as more than two years has lapsed since his detention, such long overdue arraignment is, under the rules, clearly a foregone conclusion,” he added.

The filing of the four-page reiterative motion to arraign Ampatuan was prompted by the prosecution’s receipt of the Supreme Court resolution, dated June 25, denying his petition for review.

The Supreme Court’s affirmation of the accused’s indictment had also rendered moot and academic his motion for reconsideration on the Quezon City court’s order for his arraignment, supposedly last April 26.

Aside from urging for Ampatuan’s immediate arraignment, the prosecution also asked the court to deny the ex-governor’s motion for reconsideration on the earlier setting of his arraignment.