Maguindanao gov decries delay in Ampatuan arraignment

MANILA, Philippines—After seeing a gruesome picture of his murdered wife shown in court, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu on Wednesday decried the continued delay in the arraignment of prominent members of the Ampatuan clan who were accused of planning the Maguindanao massacre.

Mangudadatu made the complaint to the media after the trial of the case resumed Wednesday at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig, after almost a month-long beak without former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his son Zaldy being arraigned.

“What kind of law is this? It’s already May. When will the others be arraigned? All the evidence has been submitted and they’re already enough,” Mangudadatu told reporters during a break in the hearing. “So, when is it going to be? We are already in the month of May. Will it still be in June?”

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes said during the last hearing on April 8 that she would resolve the pending prosecution motion to have the prominent Ampatuan clan members linked to the massacre arraigned.

The lead public prosecutor, Assistant Regional Prosecutor Peter Medalle, reiterated the motion Wednesday morning but Reyes said she still needed to review it.

Of the 196 suspects in the massacre—the bloodiest election-related incident in the country that left 57 victims dead—only 79 have been arrested and only 56 of them have been arraigned in court, said private prosecutor Nena Santos.

Of the  23 arrested suspects who have not been arraigned, five are prominent members the Ampatuan clan: Andal Sr., Zaldy, Anwar, Akmad Datu and Sajid, she added.

The prime suspect in the masscare,  Andal Ampatuan Jr., a former mayor of the town of Datu Unsay, has been the only prominent member of the clan arraigned so far.

Misuari S. Ampatuan, a member of the clan, was arraigned Wednesday  morning but he is just a militiaman and a “distant relative” of the primary suspects, Santos said.

Mangudadatu blamed defense lawyers for the delay, adding that they were filing various motions to delay the case.

“The problem here is that the defense lawyers filed so many motions that the case is being delayed,” the governor said.

He pointed out that defense lawyers on Tuesday filed a motion to have Andal Sr. hospitalized because he supposedly had a prostate problem that has already affected his legs.

“We will oppose that. It could be his means of escape,” Mangudadatu said.

Santos said the prosecution would oppose the motion because Andal Sr. was a “flight risk” while a major prosecution witness had previously testified in court that the Ampatuan patriarch had even “feigned sickness” just to avoid arrest.

Santos said that the prosecution would  agree to Andal’s Sr.’s hospitalization only if government doctors confirmed that he was really sick and only after he is arraigned.

“For humanitarian reasons, we would agree to that but only if it is proven that he is sick and only after he is arraigned,” Santos said.

Santos said this motion of the defense might be a ploy for the Amnpatuan patriarch to avoid being arraigned.

At Wednesday’s hearing, medico-legal officer Chief Insp. Raymond Cabling continued his testimony on the autopsy he conducted on the victims.

He said victim Andres “Andy” Teodoro, of the publication Central Mindanao Inquirer in Tacurong City, had 14 gunshot wounds, five of them fatal.

Cabling also presneted in court the photos he took of the victims near the massacre site in Sitio Masalay, Ampatuan, Maguindao.

The gruesome colored pictures showed the bloodied victims—two of them with their intestines jutting out of gunshot wounds in their torso—being inspected and tagged by police investigators.

One of the pictures was that of Mangudadatu’s wife, Bai Genalin Tiamzon-Mangudadatu.

“(That’s) my wife. It’s painful. It’s really painful,” Mangudadatu later told reporters.

While the governor and the relatives of the other victims had to endure looking at the graphic pictures blown up on a projector screen, the 56 persons formally accused in the case were not present in court and remained in their jail cells.

Prosecutor Medalle insisted at the start of the hearing that they should be present since that was their right but, one by one, defense lawyers stood up and said that they were waiving that right.

“This is a public trial. They should be present,” said Medalle.

Defense lawyer Paris Real countered that the accused were not required to be present during previous hearings when a medico-legal officer was testifying and that the previous prosecution panel agreed to that set-up.

But Medalle said the accused were not required to attend as the previous hearings were held in a smaller courtroom at the Quezon City Hall of Justice.

“We will ask all the accused (to be present) tomorrow,” Judge Reyes said.

Santos said all the accused should be present because they might later change their mind, fire their lawyers, and complain on appeal that they were not present at their own trial.

To enhance security inside the courtroom, the authorities set up a  barrier between the seats reserved for the accused and those of the lawyers and the judge.

The barrier is topped by iron bars—one security agent likened it to the iron bars at a pawnshop—so that the accused and those at the back can still see the proceedings.

The prosecution last month warned that the detainees might start a riot inside the courtroom and take hostages.

Santos said the prosecutors met with representatives of the Supreme Court, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and the National Bureau of Investigation and it was decided to set up the barrier as a security precaution.

When Misuari Ampatuan was arraigned on Wednesday, he stayed behind the barrier and did not walk up to the front of the judge’s dais those arraigned previously did.

And also unlike before, Santos said, the handcuffs of the accused will not be removed while the hearing is ongoing.