Ampatuan trial postponed due to venue woes

MANILA, Philippines - Unavailability of venue and the holiday season led to a delay in the trial of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. that was set today at the Quezon City trial court.

The Supreme Court (SC) announced yesterday that the first day of hearing at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 on the multiple murder case against Ampatuan has been moved to the first week of January.

Deputy court administrator Jose Midas Marquez, spokesman for the High Court, told reporters that the venue was not yet ready for the hearing.

Marquez said the SC and head judges of the Quezon City RTC chose the Non-Commissioned Officers’ Club at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), in Quezon City as venue for the trial.

"But when the executive judge and other officials of the court checked the venue, it was still occupied by employees who have yet to be transferred to another area. So the venue has yet to be converted to a court big enough to accommodate many people," said Midas.

He stressed that they have yet to finalize security measures with the PNP.

"We also have to consider the (holiday) season, apart from the fact that we will be holding trial in a venue outside a court," he added.

Marquez said that while RTC Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes is already prepared to start hearing the case, the Court has opted to defer it to January because of these factors.

He added that even Chief Justice Reynato Puno wanted the trial to start already, even as the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed 16 more counts of murder against the accused.

Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera III, head of the teams of fiscals tapped to prosecute the massacre case, said an amended complaint for 56 counts of murder against Andal Jr. was filed after necessary documents on the remaining victims had been secured by fiscals in addition to the 40 others already accounted for in the complaint filed with the RTC.

"We were supposed to file 17 but apparently there's one victim who remains unidentified," Dacera said.

Last Dec. 1, the DOJ filed information for 25 initial counts of murder against Andal Jr. before the Cotabato City RTC Branch 15, which has jurisdiction over Shariff Aguak where the massacre reportedly took place.

The DOJ then filed amended information last Dec. 9, adding 15 more counts to the information after processing documents for 15 more victims.

It was filed with the Cotabato RTC, before the case was transferred to the Quezon City RTC upon order of the Supreme Court last Dec. 8.

DOJ officials earlier explained that they could not immediately file all counts of murder against the accused because of difficulty in securing necessary death certificates from City Hall.

They said they would rely on post-mortem reports from the PNP in filing the cases.

The information named "other John Does" as accused.

NBI: No security lapses

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), meantime, stressed that there were no security lapses in last Friday's incident wherein members of the media tried to attack Andal Jr. as he was being brought to the DOJ.

Lawyer Ricardo Diaz, NBI spokesman and chief of the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), said the accused was accidentally hit on the head with a camera when media men covering the event jostled with each other to get closer to the mayor upon his arrival at the DOJ.

The NBI officials yesterday met to review last Friday's security measures.

The accused had asked for six close-in security personnel last Friday.

To avoid a recurrence of the incident, Diaz said NBI officials had decided to double Ampatuan's security, and to implement a "layering."

"They can still take shots of Mayor Ampatuan, but we will ensure there is safe distance so that the people cannot reach him," he said.

While Andal Jr. was allegedly attacked with a camera, causing him to suffer a cut in the forehead, Diaz asserted that they did their job well as far as providing security for the mayor was concerned.

He, however, denied that a photographer deliberately struck Ampatuan with a camera.

Ampatuan's lawyer Sigfrid Fortun blamed the NBI for the "attack" on his client.

Fortun said the incident could have been avoided had the NBI granted their request for a waiver of appearance of his client. But Diaz pointed out that they were merely following a court order.

Gun parts missing

Meanwhile, authorities handling the ballistic test on the recovered arms cache from former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.'s mansion in Shariff Aguak were surprised to find that the breach block of the guns allegedly used in the Nov. 23 massacre was missing.

Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu, Joint Task Force 12-Alpha commander, told The STAR that members of the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) from the Police Regional Office-12 Headquarters at Tambler in General Santos City were puzzled why the breach block of the Daewoo K3 or the Korean-made Minimi (a replica of the FN Minimi, a Belgian 5.56mm light machine gun) purportedly used by Andal Jr. in the massacre was detached from the firearm's body.

Khu said the breach block is one of the most important parts of the firearm to determine if it was used in the carnage.

He said the SOCO team will now find other means to determine if the firearms were indeed used in the massacre.

Khu said slugs of green tipped 5.56mm similar to the bullets of K3 Minimi were among the bullets recovered from the victims' bodies.

The K3 Minimi was recovered from the mansion of Andal Sr. early morning of Dec. 15 along with other high-powered weapons and ammunitions and transported to PRO-12 headquarters from Shariff Aguak Police Provincial Office at nighttime.

The word Minimi is an abbreviation for Mini Mitrailleuse, a French word for 5.56mm light machine guns developed by the Fabrique National (FN) in Herstal by Ernest Vervier.

It was first introduced in 1974 and has been used by the armed forces of several countries. The weapon is currently manufactured at the FN facility in Herstal as well as license-built in Australia, Greece and the US by FN Manufacturing LLC.

In the Philippines, only the elite units of the Philippine Army are using K3 Minimis, which has a firing rate of 900 rounds per minute.

Ampatuan patriarch fit for discharge

In Davao, attending physicians at the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) hospital in Camp Panacan declared the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan to be fit for discharge from confinement.

"He is already stable and his vital signs are okay, meaning to say he is already fit for discharge from the hospital," said Capt. Roda Franco, one of the doctors attending to the medical needs of Ampatuan Sr., 69, who has been confined at the military hospital since Dec. 6.

Franco explained that the elder Ampatuan has already recovered from the ailments he was reported to have suffered when he was arrested last Dec. 5 in his home in Shariff Aguak town.

"He could already be committed to a detention cell based on the results of his latest medical tests," she said.

Ampatuan initially complained of chest pains and hypertension upon his arrest and was first confined at the Davao Doctors Hospital before he was transferred to the Eastmincom hospital.

Physicians are reportedly just awaiting orders from the DOJ where the elder Ampatuan would be brought after discharge from the military hospital. -- Sandy Araneta, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro, Edith Regalado