MANILA, Philippines - The United States is disappointed with a recent Makati City court ruling on the killing of a US Marine outside Bel-Air Village in Makati by four Filipino men in November 2012.
US Ambassador Philip Goldberg relayed his country’s sentiment in an interview with ANC TV yesterday.
He said the court ruling on the murder of Marine George Anikow appeared to be “the end of the road” for the case that he thought hardly got media attention. “Clearly we are disappointed by it,” he said.
The killing of Anikow, husband of a US diplomat, was captured on CCTV.
The suspects were granted bail by the Makati regional trial court.
“There has been a ruling on the case and the press did not cover, pick it up. Two of the suspects were not convicted of any crime and two were convicted of homicide and given probation,” Goldberg said. “And so nobody has served the day for that brutal crime. We don’t know why that would happen.”
The probation decision, according to Goldberg, was appealed but was denied by the court.
“The justice department has said that there may be some way to appeal the probation decision but it has already been appealed once and denied, so it looks like it is the end of the road,” Goldberg said.
He said he had spoken to the victim’s family and found it hard to explain the brutal murder.
The four Filipinos reportedly ganged up on Anikow when he confronted them for bullying a village guard who prevented them from entering the subdivision.