Zaldy Ampatuan stays in jail as court denies his bail plea

QUEZON City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 denied the bid of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan to be released on bail.

In a 27-page joint order, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes said “the court rules that based on the proofs so far presented, there are clear, strong and convincing pieces of evidence which tend to exclude all reasonable probability of any conclusion that the accused is deeply involved in the purported planning of the crimes.”

Ampatuan, in his defense said he never took part in the plot to kill then Buluan Vice Mayor, now Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu and his relatives.

He said, on July 20, November 16, 17 and 22, 2009 meetings on the plot, he was out of town. He presented travel papers to prove his claim. Aside from that, Ampatuan said there was no evidence of any act he did to show that he was part of the plot.

But the court said there were eyewitnesses who positively identified the accused as present during the meetings.

Also, the court said there was failure on the part of the accused to prove that it was physically impossible for him to travel and attend the said meetings.

“The proofs shown allude to the locations of the accused, but not to his actual and fixed confinement in a certain place that would have supported his alibi. Thus, as it stands in this bail resolution, there is strong evidence that the accused attended those meetings and actually joined the discussion by giving advice and suggestions,” the court said.

On Ampatuan’s claim that there was lack of overt act to show him as a conspirator, the court said it is best threshed out in a full blown trial.

“His supposed support is not one written in air, as the accused allegedly offered to give all his guns, and agreed to be assigned to Metro Manila on the day that Esmael Mangudadatu would file his Certificate of Candidacy. Thus, he was heard saying: “kung yan na ang final desisyon natin sa (sic) patayin silang lahat ay pupunta ako ng Maynila para hindi tayo mahalata at magtawagan na lang tayo.”

“The Court cannot simply ignore these pieces of strong evidence of guilt on the part of the accused in these consolidated murder cases. Thus, the Court is constrained to deny the Bail Petitions of accused Zaldy Ampatuan,” the court said in a ruling dated Sept. 15 was received by the DOJ on Wednesday.

“I have never doubted for a single moment the strength of the evidence of the State against the principal accused in the Maguindanao Massacre case,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a text message.

“The denial of the bail petition of Zaldy Ampatuan only shows that the focus of the DOJ prosecution team on this case is unwavering. It also shows that the prosecution’s evidence is strong, and that pursuant to settled procedure and jurisprudence, the accused will remain in detention throughout the duration of the trial until conviction and sentencing,” de Lima said lauding the panel of prosecutors headed by City Prosecutor Archimedes Manabat.

The prosecution’s evidence opposing Ampatuan’s bail bid include 300 pieces of exhibits and testimonies.

Other pieces of evidence admitted by the court include sworn statements of various witnesses, as well as the medico-legal reports, autopsy pictures, anatomical sketches of the cadavers done based on the description of the witnesses, and records from telecommunications companies.

Likewise accepted as prosecution evidence were the testimonies of Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, former Ampatuan vice mayor Rasul Sangki, accused-turned-state witnesses Sukarno Badal and Esmael Canapia, and eyewitnesses Noh Akil, Lakmodin Saliao, and Esmail Amil Enog.

Zaldy Ampatuan and about a hundred others were charged with 58 counts of murder for the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.