Court junks reinvestigation bid of Ampatuan relative

MANILA, Philippines - A Quezon City court handling the three-year-old Maguindanao massacre trial has junked the motion for reinvestigation filed by a suspect said to be a distant relative of the alleged masterminds in the incident.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes denied for lack of merit the motion for reinvestigation and determination of probable cause filed by accused Manny Ampatuan.

Solis-Reyes said there is no need to conduct a determination of probable cause as an earlier determination was already made when the court issued the arrest warrants for the suspects in the massacre.

She added there is no reason to order a reinvestigation since the allegations of Ampatuan in his motion were evidentiary matters and must be presented and heard during the trial of the case.

In his appeal, Ampatuan said there was no clear proof of his involvement in the massacre. He said “not a scintilla of evidence was presented to show his participation or his presence at the crime scene.”

But the prosecution panel said Ampatuan “cannot feign ignorance of the complaints against him.”

They added there is direct evidence on the suspect’s participation in the massacre, citing an extra-judicial confession of another accused PO1 Arnulfo Soriano who said that he saw Ampatuan herding the victims before they were killed.

An earlier ABS-CBN report said the suspect was a distant nephew of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Andal Sr., along with his sons Andal Jr. and Zaldy, was among the accused in the massacre, which claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media practitioners. They have since denied involvement in the killings.

3 more suspects arraigned

Three more suspects in the massacre were arraigned yesterday during the continuation of trial proceedings at the Quezon City Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Abedin Alamada, Jonathan Ampatuan, and Richard Gofel pleaded not guilty to the 57 counts of murder filed against them.

Meanwhile, the indictment of Talembo Masukat was postponed after Solis-Reyes granted the motion to defer arraignment filed by defense lawyer Andres Manuel.

Manuel said Masukat was wrongly accused since his real name was Talembo Kahar Abdulrakman. – Janvic Mateo, Mike Frialde