Lawyers defend DOJ prosecutors vs bribery in massacre case

MANILA, Philippines - Private lawyers representing the families of the 15 victims in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre on Tuesday said the allegations of bribery by two of the private counsels of the other victims in the carnage as  "unsubstantiated."

In a statement, private counsels from the Center for International Law (Centerlaw) claimed that the bribery allegations by laeyers Nena Santos and Prima Quinsayas will only "derail the goal of effective and expeditious prosecution" of the multiple murder cases against the members of the Ampatuan clan.

The Centerlaw counsels also defended the state prosecutors handling the cases from the claims of bribery by the two private lawyers, noting they should have filed a complaint before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

"The   publicity   lamentably generated by  Attorneys Nena Santos and Prima Quinsayas in making   grave  allegations against the  public  prosecutors  unfairly taint  the integrity of the entire  work of the prosecution  considering that  the  allegations  hurled remain  bare, naked, and  reckless even.

"If  Attorneys Santos and  Quinsayas  have good faith  belief in the  worth of their  cause, we  are the first   to encourage them to  correctly ventilate them  in the proper forum of IBP administrative and judicial criminal proceedings,  where  they   should  present real, concrete and substantiated evidence, the Centerlaw counsels said.

The private prosecutors said they were the ones who proposed First-in-First-Out Rule (FIFO) so that the Quezon City Regional Trial Court may render judgment on the case of any accused over whom all evidence – for or against – has already been heard.

"The rationale is that the families of victims and the accused do not have to wait for the evidence concerning 194 accused to be heard by the court to achieve justice, which could take a long, long, long time," the private prosecutors said.

"This is why for lawyers of the Center, without evidence of bribery presented before the proper forum, the charges raised by Santos and Quinsayas do not make any sense.

"Sadly – whether Santos and Quinsayas  wittingly or unwittingly realize it -- the parties that will benefit most from their baseless allegations and  senseless intrigues are the Ampatuans," they said. - Dennis Carcamo