CA junks Zaldy Ampatuan's plea vs inclusion in massacre case

(Updated 10:06 p.m.) Suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan will remain a suspect in the killing of 57 people, including 32 journalists, in Maguindanao province on Nov. 23, 2009. This was after the Court of Appeals 11th Division, in a 4-1 decision, junked Zaldy's petition for review that seeks to strike his name off the 197-name list of charged individuals in the multiple murder case. The court had earlier junked a similar petition from Zaldy's father, Andal Ampatuan Sr., leading to the clan patriarch's arraignment last June 1. Also implicated in the crime is Zaldy's brothers, Andal Jr. and Sajid. On May 5 last year, then-Justice Secretary Alberto Agra sustained the filing of charges against Zaldy and his cousin, former Mamasapano, Maguindanao Mayor Akmad "Tato" Ampatuan. The two eparately asked the CA to nullify Agra's resolution. In the May 5 resolution, Agra reversed his own April 16 ruling and cleared the two Ampatuans of involvement in the carnage in Ampatuan town, one of the clan's strongholds in Maguindanao. In petitions with the CA, Zaldy and Akmad accused Agra of committing grave abuse of discretion for the May 5 resolution, which gave weight to the testimony of witness Abdul Talusan. They argued that Talusan was not introduced as a witness during the preliminary investigation at the DOJ. They also said the department's earlier recommendation to include them in the charge sheet was based on sworn statements of witnesses that included Maguindano incumbent Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who lost his wife and two sisters in the massacre; Nasser Abdul; and Kenny Dalandag. Lawyer Howard Calleja, Zaldy's legal counsel in the massacre case, told GMA News Online he has yet to get a copy of the decision. For her part, private prosecutor Nena Santos, legal counsel for Mangudadatu, said the ruling was "a very welcome news." "Justice will prevail," she told GMA News Online. Lawyer Harry Roque, who is representing the families of some of the victims, described the CA decision as "bittersweet." "We’re happy that we won but we’re also sad because Zaldy may have also anticipated this and has opted for admission into the witness protection program of the Department of Justice in the election fraud case against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, his former benefactor," he said. Zaldy had earlier expressed his intention to spill the beans on the alleged irregularities in the 2007 elections. He saw the writing on the wall early on, when we exposed irregularities in how his case is being handled, and somehow he found a way out – his vehicle of impunity – and it is the witness protection program of the government," he added. - Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News