2 massacre suspects arraigned

MANILA, Philippines - Two suspects in the three-year-old Maguinandao massacre trial were arraigned yesterday at the Quezon City Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

Dexson Saptula and Norhato Kamino pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against them. Their arraignment was suspended last week as their lawyer failed to attend the court proceedings.

A total of 104 suspects have been arrested in connection with the massacre that killed 58 people, including at least 32 media practitioners. Members of the Ampatuan clan, who were tagged as masterminds in the incident, have denied involvement in the crime.

Meanwhile, the judge handling the three-year-old Maguindanao massacre trial has dismissed the motion of two suspects to quash the multiple murder charges filed against them.

In a six-page order released to the media yesterday, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 junked the separate motions filed by suspects Jonathan Ampatuan and Richard Gofel.

Solis-Reyes said the allegations against Ampatuan appear “sufficient to constitute the elements of the crime of murder.” She said the suspect’s claims in his motion are considered a matter of defense that has to be proven in a full-blown trial.

Ampatuan, reportedly a distant relative of the alleged masterminds in the crime, said that no one has implicated him in the massacre and that no single fact would support his inclusion in the list of the accused.

Meanwhile, in resolving Gofel’s motion, the judge said the suspect’s claim that he was mistakenly arrested was “flimsy.” Solis-Reyes noted that the supposed evidence supporting Gofel’s motion could not be given probative value without conducting a full-blown trial. 

Gofel claimed that he was not the “Fahad Utto” who was implicated in the crime. – Janvic Mateo, Mike Frialde