Ampatuans convicted in Maguindanao Massacre case file appeals

Members of the Ampatuan clan who have been found to have planned and carried out the massacre of 57 persons in a political convoy in November 2009 are appealing the guilty verdict meted by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court before the Christmas holidays.

Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. alias Unsay has filed a notice of appeal before the QC court and asked that the records of the case be forwarded to the Court of Appeals for review and further proceedings.

Datu Anwar Ampatuan Sr., and his sons Datu Anwar Jr. and Datu Anwar Sajid have filed separate motions for reconsideration before the QC court.

Former Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao chairman Zaldy Ampatuan, on the other hand, asked the QC court to allow his transfer to the infirmary of the New Bilibid Prison.

Zaldy had been confined for almost two months at the Makati Medical Center before the court ordered that he be returned to his detention at the Camp Bagong Diwa shortly before the promulgation of the verdict.

He is said to have suffered a stroke, and is dealing with hypertension, diabetes and chronic atrial fibrillation.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes on December 19 declared several members of the influential Ampatuan clan guilty of multiple murder for the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao in 2009 that is known as an unprecedented case of election-related violence and an exceptionally brutal attack on the press.

Andal Jr., Zaldy, Anwar Sr., Anwar Jr., and Anwar Sajid were found guilty of 57 counts of murder.

On November 23, 2009, the wife, sisters, relatives, and supporters of a 2010 Maguindanao gubernatorial candidate — challenging an Ampatuan — were on their way to file his candidacy when they were abducted by around a hundred armed men, forced up a remote hill, and shot using high-powered firearms. They were buried in a mass grave.

Thirty-two of the victims were members of the media who had accompanied the camp of the candidate, Mangudadatu, to cover the filing. Mangudadatu is now a congressman.

Six of the victims were not part of the Mangudadatu and media convoy.

Aside from being the Philippines' worst case of election-related violence, the massacre is considered by the Committee to Protect Journalists as the single deadliest attack on the press since it began keeping records on journalist deaths.

The Ampatuans, including clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan, Sr., were blamed for the crime, arrested, charged, and later on tried for multiple murder. Andal Sr. died in 2015. His sons presented different alibis in court. —NB, GMA News