Families of massacre victims want 2 CA justices to inhibit

MANILA, Philippines –  Families of some victims of the Maguindanao massacre sought yesterday the inhibition of two Court of Appeals justices hearing a petition seeking to clear former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan of criminal charges.

In a motion, their lawyer Harry Roque asked Associate Justices Danton Bueser and Marlene Gonzales-Sison to recuse themselves from hearing the case in the 11th division.

“The voluntary recusal of Associate Justices Bueser and Gonzales-Sison from the first case and their active participation in the present case is, at the very least, highly unusual, considering that both cases deal with the same incident, the same facts, and the same legal controversy,” read the motion.

“It is therefore a wonder for Private Respondents to see that the same Honorable Associate Justices – Bueser and Gonzales-Sison – have not done the same in this instant case that essentially involves the same facts and the same legal controversy, with the only difference that the Petitioner in this second case is the son of the Petitioner in the first case.”

The relatives also asked the two justices to explain why they inhibited themselves from Andal Sr.’s case.

“With all due respect, private respondents believe the incongruent actions of the two honorable members of this court in relation to the two cases are actionable as grounds for a motion for their inhibition from any further participation in this proceeding,” read the motion.

The families urged the CA to constitute a new panel to resolve the petition and assign new justices in place of Bueser and Sison.

In Andal Sr.’s case, in lieu of Justices Bueser and Gonzales-Sison, Associate Justices Antonio Villamor and Amy Lazaro-Javier were drafted to form a Special 11th Division to hear the petition, with Associate Justice Noel Tijam, senior member of the regular division, writing the ruling that upheld the indictment of the clan patriarch.

“Father and son are inseparable; an umbilical cord connects them with each other – that conspiratorial bond that binds all of the accused in the case now being heard by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court,” they added.