'Release of 2 Ampatuans a political accommodation'

MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III and running mate Sen. Manuel Roxas II rebuked yesterday Justice Secretary Alberto Agra for bypassing state prosecutors and derailing the prosecution process in his unilateral decision to drop murder charges against two members of the Ampatuan clan.

Aquino and Roxas said the move confirms the LP warning of a grand scheme of Malacañang to perpetrate massive cheating in Mindanao on election day.

Aquino said one of those exonerated was Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), whose suspension would be lifted once the charges against him are dropped.

“If his suspension is lifted, then we are back to the issue of the conduct of elections in the ARMM,” he said.

Aquino said Agra should have accorded some measure of courtesy to state prosecutors who were handling the preliminary investigation on the murder charges against the Ampatuans.

“He should have allowed the court to decide if there was merit in the case,” he said.

Roxas said he was baffled at how Agra arrived at his decision to dismiss the murder charges against the suspended ARMM governor and Mamasano Mayor Akmad Ampatuan.

“Wasn’t there a team of special prosecutors?” he asked.

“It’s a team and they said, they have made no conclusions yet. How come out of the blue the Secretary of Justice will say there is no case?” 

“This is all related to politics, to the elections, to everything. How can a Secretary decide without any recommendation of the undersecretary, the assistant secretary, the bureau director? Doesn’t it raise eyebrows? How could this happen?”

SC asked to void Agra’s appointment as sol gen

The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to void Agra’s appointment as acting solicitor general.

Lawyers Dennis Funa and Melanio Elvis Balayan said Agra’s dual designation violated the Constitution, which prohibits dual or multiple positions in government.

Funa added under the Administrative Code, the Office of the Solicitor General is supposed to be “independent” and “autonomous” from the DOJ.

Funa and Balayan said it would be absurd for Agra, as member of the Judicial and Bar Council in his capacity as justice secretary, to interview applicants for the post of SC justice before whom he would argue cases for the government as acting solicitor general.

“This is a highly anomalous and unethical situation,” the lawyers said.

“Imagine, the solicitor general appears and argues before these justices as a lawyer and legal counsel, and now he will be interviewing them as applicants.”

The Constitution is clear that members of the Cabinet cannot hold other offices, Funa said.

Funa had successfully challenged the dual position of Elena Bautista as Maritime Industry Authority administrator and transportation undersecretary and had her removed as Marina administrator.

In response, Agra said the Constitution only prohibits the holding of two permanent appointments, not those that he currently holds in an acting capacity.

Agra said the Supreme Court has differentiated a temporary from a permanent appointment in the case of Bautista that Funa had argued before the SC.

 “In fact, an appointment in an acting capacity has always been intended to be merely temporary, which is good only until another appointment is made to take its place,” he said.

“A solicitor general concurrently designated as a DOJ secretary, but both in an acting or temporary capacity, is not the nefarious situation sought to be prevented by the constitutional prohibition.”

Drilon: Defy Agra

LP senatorial candidate Franklin Drilon called on government prosecutors yesterday to defy Agra’s order exonerating two members of the Ampatuan clan of murder charges.

“Dismissing the murder charges against Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan is like saying the Maguindanao massacre never happened,” he said.

“The mere fact that they were not at the scene of the crime is not proof that they did not conspire to commit murder.”

Dirlon said the prosecutors should ask the Court of Appeals to reverse Agra’s decision.

“They should not allow to go unchallenged an injustice committed by the secretary of an office tasked to dispense justice,” he said.