Ampatuan clan member in Maguindanao massacre ordered released

MANILA, Philippines - The prosecution panel in the Maguindanao massacre case on Monday suffered a heavy blow after the judge handling the multiple murder case allowed the temporary release of former provincial officer-in-charge Sajid Islam Ampatuan.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes issued a release order after denying the prosecution’s appeal on the granting of his bail petition.

Sajid Islam is the son of clan patriarch and former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. He is the brother of primary suspect Andal Jr.

The suspect, through lawyer Gregorio Marquez, posted the surety bond amounting to P11.6 million in exchange for his temporary release.

Solis-Reyes also issued a hold-departure order against Sajid Islam, preventing him from leaving the country while the multiple murder case against him is pending before the court.

In an interview with The STAR, Marquez said his client is expected to be released from detention the same day. Sajid Islam was detained with the other suspects, including members of his family, at the Quezon City Jail-Annex inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

He will be the first suspect who will be temporarily released on bail.

Reacting on the order for release, private lawyer Harry Roque – who represents families of some of the slain media personnel – expressed alarm on the court ruling.

"We’re aghast and alarmed that an Ampatuan is released a year and two months before elections,” Roque said in a text message to The STAR. “We will continue to work for his conviction."

‘Presence in meetings not guilt’

In her five-page order dated March 6, Solis-Reyes denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the prosecution panel on the earlier ruling that allowed Sajid Islam to post bail.

“For the court, the mere presence of the accused during the meetings, albeit the argument that he occupied a government position, does not… translate to a conclusion of a strong evidence of guilt,” said the judge.

The judge said the earlier findings of the court that the accused was only present at meetings and did not make any utterances remain undisturbed despite conflicting claims on the position of the accused at the time of the massacre.

The panel of prosecutors claimed that Sajid Islam was the OIC governor of Maguindanao when the massacre happened on Nov. 23, 2009.

They said this proves that he played a major role in the massacre, as he did not oppose – as officer-in-charge – to the deployment of the police force and the use of the backhoe to bury the victims.

Marquez, however, argued that his client ended his stint as officer-in-charge a month before the massacre.

“The [prosecutors] would want this court to construe this silence of the accused as an assent to the commission of the crimes,” said Solis-Reyes.

“However, (they) failed to state any legal basis of the claim that silence, during the conduct of a meeting of a conspiracy, already means assent to the commission of the crimes,” she added.

In her order granting the bail plea of Sajid Islam in January 9, Solis-Reyes said that the suspect was merely present in the meetings but did not utter any word while matters about the rime were supposedly being discussed.

“Taking into consideration this silence and non-participation notwithstanding the fact that he gave P2,000 to a witness for the latter to buy fish, the court finds, in its exercise of sound discretion, that the totality of the circumstances presently fails to reach the threshold of strong evidence of guilt,” read the order.

The judge, however, reiterated that the findings of the court on the bail petition are not related to a finding of guilt or innocence which would be adjudged in a full-blown trial.

“The court merely assessed the evidence presented by the prosecution against the bail applications of the three accused in determining their entitlement to provisional liberty,” she added.

Flight risk

In the hold-departure order, the judge noted the possibility that Sajid Islam may jump bail due to the nature of the offenses and the magnitude of these cases.

But Marquez, who did not object to the request for such an order, said his client will face the charges filed against him.

Murder is a non-bailable offense, but a petition for bail may be granted should the court find that the evidence against a suspect is not strong.

Some 60 suspects, including members of the Ampatuan clan, have asked the court to allow them to post bail.

Forty two other suspects – most of whom are police officers and members of civilian volunteer organizations – have been allowed to post bail. None of them, however, was able to produce the P11.6 million set by the court.

Meanwhile, 14 suspects – including Anwar Ampatuan Sr. and Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan – were denied bail.

The bail petition of Andal Sr., Andal Jr., and Zaldy Ampatuan are still pending before the court.

A total of 113 of the 197 suspects charged for the massacre have been arrested. Charges against the three have already been dropped.

Fifty-eight people, including 32 media practitioners, died in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.