Ampatuan grandsons plead ‘not guilty’

MANILA, Philippines - Two grandsons of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. on Wednesday morning pleaded “not guilty” to the multiple counts of murder filed against them in connection with the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan Jr. and Anwar Sajid “Ulo” Ampatuan entered their plea before Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes during the continuation of court proceedings inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

The two Ampatuans were the 102nd and 103rd suspects who entered their plea for the initial 57 counts of murder filed for the massacre.

With their arraignment, only two arrested suspects have yet to be arraigned for the 57 counts of murder – Talembo Masukat and Sahid Guiamadil, who both claim that their apprehension were cases of mistaken identities.

Court records show that a total of 107 suspects out of the 197 people implicated in the massacre have already been arrested by the authorities.

Charges against the two have already been dismissed by the court.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen arrested suspects have yet to be arraigned for the 58th murder charge that was filed only in September 2012. The case was for the alleged death of photojournalist Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay, whose remains have yet to be found.

The arraignment of the remaining suspects has yet to push through pending resolutions of the respective motions that they filed before the Department of Justice and the court.

The arraignment of Ipi and Ulo pushed through after Solis-Reyes issued an order denying their motion seeking the reversal of an earlier ruling that denied their bid to dismiss the cases against them.

In her order, Solis-Reyes said she found the motion filed by the Ampatuans as a mere rehash of their earlier arguments that were already dismissed by the court.

She said there is nothing under the rules “which would require that the judicial finding of probable cause be made in a specific form.”

“Neither it is required that the pieces of evidence which were made the bases for the indictment of an accused be specifically mentioned by the court in its order,” she added.

In their motion for reconsideration, the suspects – through their lawyer Emmanuel Brotarlo – urged the court to reverse its earlier ruling and dismiss the case against them as there were no evidence of their involvement in the massacre.

“What were the evidences presented by the Panel of Investigating Prosecutors which were personally examined by the Honorable Court before it concluded that there exists a probable cause against (the suspects) for the crimes charged?” asked Brotarlo in the motion.

“The only evidence, if at all, against both Accused, during the alleged conduct of preliminary investigation of the subject cases, is their surname which is ‘Ampatuan,’” he added.

Ipi and Ulo claimed that they were in Las Vegas to watch the Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto fight days before the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre. They said that they were attending a session of the Sangguniang Bayan in Shariff Aguak at the time of the incident.

In July, Solis-Reyes dismissed the Ampatuans’ respective pleas to junk the case against them.

The judge said the court has always been consistent with its position on the matter, saying it has already ruled the existence of probable cause when it issued the arrest warrants against the suspects.

“Since no other pleadings were filed by either of the accused-movants in order to refute the finding of probable cause not only by the panel of investigating prosecutors as well as this court, it is of the view that no cogent reason exists to justify the reversal of such finding,” read the five-page order released in July 17.

Ipi and Ulo were separately arrested by authorities on Mar. 5, 2012 and Aug. 28, 2012, respectively.

Fifty-eight people, including at least 32 media practitioners, died in the massacre. The journalists were supposed to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of then-Buluan vice mayor and now Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

While en route to the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak, the group led by the wife of Mangudadatu was stopped and brutally murdered by more than a hundred men. The incident was dubbed by the Committee to Protect Journalists as the single deadliest event for journalists in world history

Mangudadatu accused members of the rival Ampatuan clan as perpetrators of the crime. The Ampatuans denied involvement in the incident.