De Lima urged to include NBI witness in charges vs Ampatuans

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers of former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. yesterday asked the Manila regional trial court to order Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to include National Bureau of Investigation witness Kenny Dalandag as one of the suspects in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre where 57 people were killed.

In a 17-page “Petition for Mandamus,” filed by Ampatuan lawyers led by Philip Sigfrid Fortun, also named as respondents were Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, and the panel of prosecutors of the Maguindanao massacre headed by Deputy Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon.

“Inasmuch as it is respondents’ duty to investigate and prosecute persons believed to have committed an offense, they had refused petitioner’s request that they affirmed act thereon in light of Dalandag’s sworn admissions. Their refusal to act or reckless inaction constitutes a deliberate refusal to perform a duty enjoined by law,” said the lawyers.

Resort to mandamus, the lawyers said, is now urgent and indispensable as respondents have unreasonably refused to perform functions that the law specifically requires as a duty their omission to investigate and indict Dalandag.

The lawyers noted that the Nov. 2, 2010 letter of respondents, De Lima denied her obligation to prosecute Dalandag for the crime of multiple murder despite admissions made by the NBI witness in his affidavits dated Dec. 7, 2009.

Ampatuan was named as the mastermind in the massacre.

The lawyers also said that Dalandag confirmed in two affidavits submitted by the NBI to the Department of Justice in December 2009 his role in meetings and activities that culminated in the carnage. Dalandag is a confessed member of an armed militia group in Maguindanao who is now under the government’s protective custody for his admitted participation in the planning and execution of the Maguindanao massacre. The lawyers said that a scrutiny of the records of the preliminary investigation of the massacre revealed that Dalandag, in his own admission, was one of the armed men who participated in the killing of the 57 individuals.

Majority of those killed in the carnage were journalists.

The lawyers said Dalandag confirmed being present in the Nov. 22, 2009 meeting that purportedly took place in the residence of Andal Ampatuan Sr., in Bagong Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. Here in the meeting, the plan to kill the Mangudadatus was hatched, they said. They said Dalandag also confirmed that he was present and actually manned the checkpoint at Sitio Matagabong where he waited for the arrival of the Mangudadatu convoy which included the 57 victims of the massacre.

“He owned up to being present when the Mangudadatu convoy was flagged down in Sitio Malting preparatory to their being killed,” said the petition. These admissions, the Ampatuan lawyers said, are more than sufficient evidence to establish probable cause against Dalandag.

However, despite these sworn admissions, Dalandag was not indicted as respondent, the Ampatuan lawyers said. 

Instead, the panel of prosecutors chose to charge persons with surnames Ampatuan or those related, or who were known to have worked for them, the lawyers said.