Maguindanao massacre suspect takes another tack

Coffins are lined up at the National Press Club in Manila, symbolizing the death of 58 victims of the Maguindanao massacre on Nov. 23, 2009. Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr., detained son-in-law of Ampatuan clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., has asked a Quezon City court to allow him to be at his daughter’s July 6 graduation at the Philippine International Convention Center. JAMIE ELONA/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Describing him as a flight risk, state prosecutors have opposed a request by an Ampatuan in-law, one of the suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, to be allowed to attend his daughter’s graduation next month.

Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr., a son-in-law of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and a former mayor of Mamasapano town, asked Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 to allow him “as a father and human being” to be at his daughter’s July 6 graduation at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Akmad, who also has a pending motion for an escorted medical checkup in a government hospital, is currently detained at the Quezon City Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City.

In their three-page opposition filed June 11 in court, state prosecutors asked Reyes to junk the request, saying that Ampatuan was a flight risk as he was involved in a high-profile case.

They argued that Ampatuan’s rights, particularly his personal freedom, were “necessarily restrained,” as a prisoner.

Akmad is scheduled to be arraigned on June 26 for the Nov. 23, 2009, killing of 58 persons in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao.

In his pending June 13 motion, Ampatuan asked to be allowed medical leave for a checkup in a government hospital to avoid complications that could endanger his life.—Jeannette I. Andrade