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Aquino wants proceedings on Mamasapano raps suspended

February 9, 2018 | 12:18pm

Aquino wants proceedings on Mamasapano raps suspended

CHR Chair Etta Rosales and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman offer a prayer for peace along a river in Mamasapano municipality in February 2015. John Unson, file

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Benigno Aquino III has asked the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan to suspend the proceedings on criminal cases against him in connection with the January 25, 2015 Mamasapano incident.

In his three-page motion filed before the court's Fourth Division on February 5, Aquino, through lawyers Romeo Johann Fernandez and Cielo Marjorie Goño, said it is premature to start with the proceedings while his motion to quash the cases remains pending.

“If the Motion to Quash Informations is granted, all incidents and proceedings taken in the meantime will be rendered moot,” Aquino's motion read.

Aquino pointed out that even the respective motions to quash of his co-accused, former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima and former PNP- Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) director Getulio Napeñas Jr., have yet to be resolved by the court.

Aquino, Purisima and Napeñas are facing before the Fourth Division one count each of violation of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices, and usurpation of official functions under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code.

The cases stemmed from Aquino's alleged act of allowing then suspended PNP chief Purisima participate in the planning and implementation of Oplan Exodus, a botched police operation aimed to neutralize Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir — alias Marwan — and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman.

Marwan was neutralized but the operation resulted in the death of more than 60 people including 44 members of the PNP-SAF.

Only Purisima had been arraigned of the cases, to which, he entered a not guilty plea.

It can be remembered that Aquino's scheduled arraignment on January 12 was deferred after he filed his motion to quash a week before the proceedings.

The Fourth Division reset his arraignment on February 15. The court also gave Aquino's camp until February 5 to submit a pre-trial brief which must contain the list of witnesses and documentary exhibits they intend to present during the trial proper.

In his motion, however, the former president said that “due to the pendency of his motion to quash [case] informations, Mr. Aquino believes that the filing of a pre-trial brief is premature”.

'Purisima's presence not usurpation'

Nonetheless, Aquino said his legal team is now preparing the pre-trial brief and intends to submit it by February 10.

“Due to the voluminous documents involved in the case, the undersigned needs more time to prepare the same. Hence, Mr. Aquino respectfully moves that he be given an additional period of five days or until 10 February 2018 to file said pre-trial brief,” Aquino prayed to the court.

In his motion to quash filed on January 4, Aquino argued that merely allowing Purisima to be present during the planning of Oplan Exodus cannot constitute usurpation of official functions nor a violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Aquino said Article VII of the 1987 Constitution vests him all the “executive powers” to ensure the arrest of someone who posts threat to national security.

Aquino said that in his “lawful exercise of his Presidential powers”, he can utilize the services of Purisima for Oplan Exodus “prior to and during its implementation” as well to “ease out” then PNP acting chief Leonardo Espina and then Secretary of Interior and Local Government Manuel Roxas III from Oplan Exodus.

On the third anniversary of the Mamasapano incident last month, the Office of the Solicitor General filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking the reversal of the ombudsman's dismissal of the complaint of 44 counts of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, which the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption filed against Aquino in 2016.

The OSG prayed to the High Tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction in order to suspend the proceedings of the graft and usurpation cases before the Sandiganbayan until their petition is resolved.

VACC had earlier accused Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales of rushing the filing of graft and usurpation cases against Aquino in order to shield him from graver charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide.

Morales, an Aquino appointee with a fixed term, had previously denied the allegation, maintaining that she always “go by the evidence” in deciding on the cases to be filed in court against former and incumbent government officials.