Court allows Devanadera to skip massacre trial

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City court handling the Maguindanao massacre trial has granted the request of former justice secretary Agnes Devanadera not to appear as a witness for Andal Ampatuan Jr.

In a four-page order, Judge Genie Gapas-Agbada of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 agreed with Devanadera’s argument that she could not be called as a defense witness without the government’s consent.

The ruling quashed the subpoena earlier issued by the court on Devanadera upon the request of Ampatuan’s lawyer Salvador Panelo.

Panelo said they would present Devanadera to the court to establish that the government has “short-circuited the process” when police authorities arrested and illegally subjected his client to inquest proceedings.

But in her motion, Devanadera said she could not be asked to testify before the court due to compelling legal reasons.

She argued that as former justice secretary, she acted as counsel of the government with the people of the Philippines as her clients.

Devanadera said she could not violate her oath as a lawyer, citing the Revised Rules of Court, which prohibits the examination of a lawyer without the consent of his clients.

According to Devanadera, the said rules require that a party – in this case – Panelo should first send “interrogatories” to the other party, which is the prosecution team.

The court turned down Panelo’s argument that the former government official can be compelled to testify for the defense.