The prosecution intends to have two primary suspects—former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan—arraigned Thursday, the 500th day after the November 2009 massacre of 57 persons, including at least 30 media workers. (There is a reported 58th victim but the remains have yet to be found.)

Private prosecutor Harry Roque told reporters that three policemen charged in the multiple-murder case had asked to be excused from Thursday’s hearing “because some of their fellow accused plan to disrupt [it],” Roque said during a break in Wednesday’s hearing at the Quezon City Hall of Justice.

“They said there is a plan to cause a commotion at the hearing,” he said.

Roque said the policemen made the request on Friday, during the National Police Commission hearing on the administrative cases against cops linked to the massacre.

“We have received several reports [earlier] but this is the first time this information has come from the accused themselves,” he said.

Case hearings have been held at the Quezon City Hall of Justice since December last year. But the trial goes back to Camp Bagong Diwa on Thursday because two of the accused who are detained there—a policeman and a militiaman—are scheduled for arraignment.

Threats

Security was tight even at Wednesday’s hearing, according to an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation.

The agent, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak to reporters, said they were deployed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to provide protection because of “information that the state prosecutors handling the Ampatuan case had separately received threats in the past few days.”

He refused to say where the threats had come from.

Rowie Orquita, head of security at the Quezon City Hall of Justice, said tight protective measures had always been in place in the building. But he admitted that additional policemen had been deployed since the trial was moved to Quezon City from Taguig.

“The augmentation of security came from the police,” Orquita said. “But otherwise, our security force has always been the same because we consider each case a high risk regardless of who is involved.”

He added that apart from the regular policemen and members of the judiciary security team monitoring the hearing, another police team and NBI agents were deployed to provide added protection at Wednesday’s hearing.

Intel reports

Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan said the prosecution was taking all necessary precautions.

“We really have to think about security. We have received intelligence reports that our security has already been compromised,” he said. “We are adding more security personnel for both our public and private prosecutors.”

Baraan said the DoJ had been receiving such reports since last year but that the reports had become more frequent this year.

“What’s important is we keep ourselves safe. Given the nature of the case, this is seen as part of the job,” he said.

Baraan said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had also requested Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to replace the warden and a number of guards at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology compound in Taguig where the hearing would be held.

“They have been there for a long time. They should be replaced to prevent familiarity with the prisoners,” he said.

The warden at the prison compound is usually replaced every three months. Baraan said the incumbent had been at his post longer than the requisite period.

Push for arraignment

Despite the alleged threats, Roque and Baraan said Thursday’s hearing would proceed. They said the prosecution would insist that Ampatuan Sr. and Zaldy Ampatuan be arraigned despite the latter’s pending case in the Court of Appeals seeking the dismissal of the charges against them.

The appellate court had earlier thrown out a similar petition from Ampatuan Sr. but the previous public prosecutors in the case did not immediately push for his arraignment because he was expected to appeal.

Baraan said the Ampatuans had to be arraigned because the prosecution would present witnesses in the coming hearings who would implicate them in the massacre.

“If they’re not arraigned, the witnesses would have to return later and repeat their testimony,” he said.

According to Roque, the arraignment will proceed unless the appellate court issues a temporary restraining order.

Roque said the prosecution would also ask the Supreme Court to have Zaldy Ampatuan’s lawyer Howard Calleja explain his statement to reporters that his client had been granted bail by the appellate court.

“[Inquirer Metro columnist] Ramon Tulfo also mentioned a supposed P200 million [bribe] ... This is alarming. We will ask the Supreme Court to investigate what is happening there in the Court of Appeals,” Roque said.

At Wednesday’s hearing, former police medico-legal officer Tomas Dimaandal Jr. testified on his autopsy of massacre victims Alejandro “Bong” Reblando, 54, of Manila Bulletin and Cynthia Oquendo, 35, a lawyer of the Mangudadatu family.

Dimaandal said Reblando’s body bore eight gunshot wounds, four fatal, including one that entered through the right ear and exited just below the left ear.

“This is a fatal wound because it lacerated the brain,” Dimaandal testified.

The witness said Oquendo also died due to multiple gunshot wounds.

He said the wounds totaled 13, including one in the pubic area and another one in the left hand, which also showed signs of tattooing, or evidence that the shot was fired at close range.

New prosecutor

The new lead public prosecutor, Assistant Regional Prosecutor Peter Medalle, got off to a bumpy start with defense lawyers and even Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes noting lapses in his presentation of Dimaandal as witness.

Justice Secretary De Lima had earlier revamped the original prosecution panel, saying some of its members lacked the zeal to pursue the case—a charge the prosecutors denied.

Defense lawyer Andres Manuel rose at least thrice to protest Medalle’s “leading questions” to the witness.

On the third instance, just as Manuel was about to register another objection, Judge Reyes told Medalle: “You are again asking a leading question.”

Medalle also began asking the witness about the state of Reblando’s body even before the anatomical sketch of the victim and his wounds was displayed on the projector, as was the practice in previous hearings.

“Aren’t you going to show the anatomical sketch?” the judge said.

Medalle also had trouble marking evidence and at one time had to withdraw a question because he had the exhibit wrong.

He likewise sparred with defense lawyer Sigfrid Fortun as he was establishing the circumstances behind Dimaandal’s testimony.

Fortun told the court that the defense was willing to stipulate to the circumstances so as not to lengthen the proceedings.

Medalle said the defense offer should have been made earlier.

Fortun retorted: “In the previous presentation [of the autopsy reports on] 47 victims, that was our procedure: to go directly to the point.

Philip Tubeza, Inquirer.net