Sandigan affirms arrest order vs Ampatuan

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has affirmed its earlier order to arrest former Maguindanao governor Sajid Ampatuan in connection with his conviction over a hundred criminal charges involving multi-million peso transactions of the provincial government in 2009.

In a resolution promulgated on April 20, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division denied Ampatuan’s appeal to allow him to continue enjoying his provisional liberty while he avails himself of the legal remedies to dispute his conviction.

The anti-graft court said that aside from failing to attend the promulgation of the decision of the cases on Feb. 9, Ampatuan has yet to surrender before the court even as it has been 15 days since his conviction was officially recorded in the court’s docket.

Due to this, the court said Ampatuan has lost his right to post additional bail for his continued provisional liberty and to avail himself of the legal remedies.

The court earlier rejected Ampatuan’s alibi that he could not attend the promulgation because he was supposedly suffering from acute gastritis and gout.

The Sixth Division cited a provision of the Rules of Court, which states that an accused who fails to appear without justifiable causes during the promulgation of judgment of his cases, would lose the legal remedies available to him and would be arrested.

The same provision states that the accused may regain his good standing with the court if he surrenders within 15 days from the date of his conviction, and justify his absence during the promulgation of judgment.

The Sandiganbayan said that although Ampatuan has filed an instant motion seeking to avail himself of post-conviction remedies within the 15-day period, he has not yet surrendered to the court.

It said the defendant failed to comply with the requirement that would allow him to regain his good standing and to avail himself of the legal remedies available to him.

The Sixth Division said no motion for reconsideration or notice of appeal was filed by the Ampatuan camp within the 15-day period,  which made the Feb. 9 ruling convicting him of the cases final and executory.

Ampatuan may still appeal his conviction before the Supreme Court, the Sandiganbayan said.

Earlier, the anti-graft court convicted Ampatuan of four counts each of violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act as well as of malversation of public funds as provided under the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

He was also convicted of 126 counts of falsification of public documents as provided under Article 171 of the RPC.

For the graft charges, Ampatuan was sentenced to six years to 10 years in prison for each count and disqualified from holding public office.

For the malversation cases, he was sentenced to 17 years and four months to 18 years and eight months for each count as well as ordered to pay a fine of P62.182 million or equivalent to the total amount of public funds that he supposedly malversed.

The court said the amount was on top of another P62.182 million in civil liabilities that Ampatuan must return to the government with a corresponding interest rate of six percent per annum.

For the falsification cases, the defendant was sentenced to six to seven years for each count of the offense.

He was also ordered to pay a fine of P5,000 for each count of the offense or a total of P630,000 for 126 counts.

Aside from Ampatuan, the court also convicted former provincial bids and awards committee member Ali Abpi of graft, malversation and falsification.

The anti-graft court earlier noted unconfirmed reports that Abpi had passed away, but his lawyer has yet to submit his death certificate.