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Slow-paced trial a heavy burden for kin of Maguindanao massacre victims


For Ramonita Salaysay, there is very little to note in the Maguindanao massacre case in the last couple of months as far as progress in the hearing is concerned.
 
Instead of a fast-paced trial that almost everyone — from the victims’ families to the general public — wanted, what was seen in the last 365 days was far from encouraging: dead witnesses, a court decision barring live media coverage of the trial, and only a handful of arrests. No prime suspects were also arraigned in the past year.
 
"Parang mas maganda pa tuloy ang first two years ng trial kasi pakiramdam ko parang gumagalaw ang kaso noon," Salaysay told GMA News Online in an interview.
 
Salaysay’s husband, Napoleon, a media worker, was one of the 58 people killed in the November 23, 2009 massacre — a grisly crime blamed on the powerful Ampatuan family.
 
With the trial expected to last for years, even decades, Salaysay said the government should exhaust all legal means to have the case resolved immediately, adding that a slow-paced trial could put the country in a bad light. 
 
She also admitted that three years after the personal tragedy, she has not been able to move on.
 
"Sad to say, hindi pa talaga kami nakaka-recover at ang anger ko at ang pain, lalo lang lumalalim kasi hanggang ngayon walang hustisya," Salaysay said.
 
"Siguro kung makukulong na iyang lahat ng suspects, tuturuan ko ang sarili ko na mag-move on. Pero hangga’t hindi nangyayari 'yon, never!" she added
 
An effort to expedite the trial has been exerted: the Supreme Court has designated the sala of Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes as a special court that will handle no other case but the Maguindanao massacre.
 
Reyes, for her part, has been hearing the case on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with special hearings on Tuesdays and Fridays.
 
Judicial courtesy
 
Private prosecutor Prima Quinsayas said Reyes' practice of "judicial courtesy" proved to be a big challenge for the prosecution. 
 
Judicial courtesy is usually observed by lower court judges when they think there is strong probability that issues raised before a higher court would be rendered moot if trial at the lower court proceeds.
 
For instance, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan, a prime suspect in the case, could not yet be arraigned because Reyes wanted the separate petitions filed by Zaldy's camp at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court to be resolved first.
 
"It is within the discretion of the honorable judge when and when not to observe 'judicial courtesy,' but I'm only human and can't help feel a little disappointed when things don't go the prosecution's way," admitted Quinsayas, a lawyer from the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists representing families of several slain media workers.
 
In July, a stumbling block in Zaldy's arraignment was removed when the Supreme Court upheld findings to include him in the murder charge sheet. 
 
Zaldy, however, has yet to be arraigned pending the resolution of a separate motion he filed with the Quezon City court questioning his inclusion in the murder case.
 
So far, only two members of the Ampatuan family — Zaldy’s brother Andal Ampatuan Jr. and father Andal Sr. — have been arraigned, with both pleading not guilty to the massacre.
 
Delaying tactics
 
The defense’s propensity to delay the proceedings also contributed to the turtle-paced progress of the trial, according to Quinsayas.
 
Quinsayas specifically noted the defense's repeated attempts to block the presentation of certain witnesses against the accused. 
 
She said the defense's tactic was simple: First, it will file a motion asking the court not to allow a witness to testify. If the court resolves to allow the witness to take a stand, the defense will file a motion for reconsideration. If the motion is denied, the defense would elevate the case to the Court of Appeals through a petition for certiorari.
 
The lawyer said among the witnesses whose testimony the defense allegedly tried to block were lawyer Gemma Oquendo, whose father and sister were among the victims, and a forensic expert from the National Bureau of Investigation. 
 
Quinsayas said their testimonies were blocked for almost a year, and it was only recently that they finally got to take the stand.
 
She also said the defense tried blocking the testimonies of Superintendent Pedro Austria and Inspector Francisco Sonza. Austria was the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 12 (CIDG-12) head at the time of the massacre, while Sonza was head of the investigation team that conducted an inspection of vehicles and equipment used by the victims at the time of the carnage.
 
"It is ironic whenever defense accuses prosecution of not having any witness when in truth presentation of certain witnesses has been blocked," she said.
 
Less crucial witnesses
 
Another private prosecutor, University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque Jr., said the third year of the trial was also marked by the noticeable absence of more crucial witnesses at the witness stand.
 
"All private complainants have finished testifying but only them and investigators have been presented and no eyewitnesses," lamented Roque, who represents families of 15 of the 32 slain journalists.
 
The defense lawyers, however, argued that the delay in the trial was not caused by their blocking of the prosecution witnesses, but because the prosecution had a habit of bringing out "surprise" witnesses who are not listed on the pre-trial order, which the defense insisted was a violation of the rights of the accused.
 
No strong witnesses?
 
In a separate interview with GMA News Online, defense lawyer Paris Real said the prosecution's presentation of many witnesses was contributing to the delay of the trial.
 
"The prosecution practically wants to present as many witnesses as possible para hindi makalabas ang kliyente namin. That I think is the strategy na ginagawa nila," he said.
 
Real said as far as his clients — suspects Datu Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan Jr, Nasser Esmael, Nicomedes Tolentino, Bulatukan Omar Kayansang, and Datutulon Esmail — are concerned, the cases against them could be resolved in "less than one or two years."
 
To achieve this, Real said the prosecution should only be allowed to present a smaller number of crucial witnesses during the bail hearings.
 
"Bail hearings are supposed to be speedy summary and not capricious, whimsical and uncontrolled," he said, appealing to the prosecution to finally rest its case so the defense can take its turn.
 
"Kung tutuusin ang dapat i-present, kahit 10 lang or eight lang. Basta malakas na testigo," Real said.
 
He said of some 120 witnesses that have so far been presented by the prosecution, none were "strong and substantial."
 
Estimates made by various individuals, from Sen. Joker Arroyo to Roque himself, and based on the hundreds of witnesses set to testify placed the duration of the trial at between 200 years to as long as 55,000 years.
 
Dead witnesses
 
It also did not help that several witnesses and prospective witnesses either died or were allegedly silenced in the past year. 
 
In February, PO2 Hernanie Decipulo reportedly jumped from the roof of the four-storey Quezon City Jail's Annex building, where he was detained along with the Ampatuans and fellow policemen tagged in the massacre.
 
Decipulo had just spoken with his wife on the rooftop during visitation hours when he fell to his death in February.
 
Jail officials had been quoted as saying Decipulo seemed "depressed" days before the incident. He was among the accused who were being considered by the prosecution for conversion to state witness status.
 
Meanwhile, Esmail Amil Enog's dismembered body was found in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao. He was believed to have been dead for more than two weeks when his body was found last June.
 
Enog had refused government protection, insisting he did not want to be confined inside a government safe house.
 
A driver of a large number of the gunmen to the massacre site, Enog was the second witness to be slain; the first, in 2010, was Suwaib Upham, who claimed to be one of the perpetrators of the massacre.
 
Enog had testified last year, telling the court that as an employee of the Ampatuan family, he drove 36 of the clan's armed followers to the site where the victims were later abducted and then driven to the killing field in Barangay Salman in a town named after the family.
 
Also in June, private prosecutor Nena Santos said 36-year-old Menjie Nangulamas Ubpon of Poblacion Mother in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, was killed by two unidentified men who were riding a motorcycle. He was reportedly shot at close range.
 
Santos said the prosecution believes Ubpon was the same person as Alijol Ampatuan, one of the prospective witnesses they were planning to present in court. 
 
However, the prosecution team admitted having a hard time "establishing that Ubpon and Alijol are one and the same."
 
Santos said Ubpon was not yet on the prosecution list of witnesses to be presented in court, but said he was one of their "undisclosed witnesses."
 
Prosecution lawyers also die
 
The deaths also did not only come from the camp pf the witnesses. The prosecution suffered another blow when state prosecutor Nestor Lazaro, 55, died in February following a heart bypass.
 
Lazaro's death came a little more than a year after Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera, one of the lead counsels in the case, died due to a heart attack.
 
The circumstances leading to Dacera's death remain vague, but Justice Secretary Leila de Lima hinted of stress-related ailments as a result of the 54-year-old prosecutor's work not only in the Maguindanao massacre case but also in the Witness Protection Program, which he headed.
 
Quinsayas remains confident that despite Dacera's death, the government's WPP remains "capable and bringing its utmost best" in keeping the witnesses safe. 
 
Living in fear
 
Still, families of the victims have repeatedly appealed to the government to pursue the suspects who remain at large, fearing these individuals pose a danger not only to witnesses but to them as well.
 
Catherine Nuñez, mother of slain UNTV cameraman Victor Nuñez, learned from her neighbors in Mindanao that at least four people riding in two motorcycles had gone around their community asking where the Nuñezes live.
 
Nuñez reportedly said a white Nissan Navarra without a license plate was trailing the motorcycle-riding men when they left the area.  
She also claimed the "suspicious-looking" men had asked her neighbors what establishments she could be normally seen.
 
Ampatuans returning to power?
 
With the coming elections, the families fear for their lives more than ever, especially with the looming possibility that the Ampatuan clan, through its other members who are not implicated in the massacre, could once more gain footing in local politics in Mindanao. 
 
According to Commission on Elections statistics, more than 70 candidates in the upcoming May 2013 midterm elections who carry the surname or middle name Ampatuan are vying for a public seat.
 
"The Ampatuans should not be allowed to return to public office kasi ang mga families of the victims din ang maiipit," Roque said.
 
Worse, Quinsayas added, politicians might use the massacre case to court more votes. "My worry is more that politicians might use the Ampatuan massacre case to make promises and then don't deliver," she said.
 
Decline in arrests
 
In late August, the Philippine National Police arrested a significant suspect in the crime: Datu Anwar Sajid "Ulo" Ampatuan, grandson of Andal Sr. and son of former Shariff Aguak mayor Anwar Ampatuan Sr.
 
Ulo, who was arrested at the BF Resort in Las Piñas, carried a P300,000 bounty on his head. The PNP said he was the 103rd suspect to be arrested.
 
Around the same period exactly a year ago, the PNP's tally of arrested suspects stood at 95.
 
This means that during the entire third year since the Maguindanao massacre, authorities have only arrested an additional eight suspects — a decline from the 12 suspects arrested during the second year after the killings. 93 suspects still at large
 
Despite several arrests, 93 more suspects still remain at large — a huge number, according to Roque.
 
"One hundred three na nga ang naaresto at 93 na lang ang hindi pa… pero still, 93 pa rin iyon. Marami pa rin iyon!" he said.
 
Roque lamented how the late Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Department and Interior and Local Government "unfortunately failed" in bringing down to zero, or much less slash, the number of suspects who continue to roam free. Robredo died in a plane crash last August, without seeing a significant progress in sending more suspects to jail under his watch.
 
"Ang challenge ngayon kay Secretary Manuel Roxas II is to do something about this," Roque said, referring to Robredo’s replacement.
 
PO2 Salvador Cabatay of the Operation Management Division-Maguindanao massacre secretariat at Camp Crame assured the families of the victims that the PNP continues to pursue the wanted suspects.
 
"Actually, alam na natin kung nasaan ang iba... kaso mahirap din talaga minsan ma-capture iyong iba kasi namundok na," Cabatay told GMA News Online.
 
"Pero nagtatrabaho po ang PNP at kung ano naman ang information na dumating sa amin, ginagawan kaagad namin ng paraan kung paano sila matunton," he added.
 
No live coverage
 
Another "hurdle" that recently got in the way of some of the victims’ families was the recent Supreme Court decision barring live media coverage of the proceedings.
 
The court now is only allowing audio-visual recordings of the trial for documentary purposes and for transmittal in closed-circuit viewing areas within the Camp Bagong Diwa premises and trial court in Maguindanao, Koronadal, South Cotabato, and General Santos City, where relatives of the victims currently reside.
 
Roque considered the ruling a "big blow to judicial transparency and right to information," especially since prosecutors think public interest in the trial has significantly waned with every passing year.
 
Reacting to this, Quinsayas said: "It is also time to remind media in general that 32 of its members are among those killed in the massacre. It is also time to remind the public that the massacre is also an attack on free elections."  with infographic by Den Fajardo/KBK/KG, GMA News
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