Illnesses killed massacre victims?

MANILA, Philippines - A defense lawyer of several suspects in the Maguindanao massacre in November 2009 claimed yesterday that some of the victims could have died of ailments such as heart attack, asthma and appendicitis and not from gunshot wounds.

Lawyer Andres Manuel even asked a police medico-legal officer about the possibility that some victims had inflicted upon themselves the injuries they sustained.

During the defense’s cross-examination of police medico-legal doctor Chief Inspector Dean Cabrera, Manuel also hinted of the possibility of necrophilia in the case of a female victim who had seminal fluids in her genitals.

Cabrera had conducted autopsy on the bodies of 12 of the victims in the Maguindanao massacre that happened on Nov. 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

The massacre resulted in the killing of 57 people, including the wife of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan, Maguindanao and two of his sisters, two female lawyers and 30 journalists who covered the supposed filing of certificate of candidacy of the vice mayor who would run for governor of Maguindanao and challenge a scion of the Ampatuan clan.

Mangudadatu was elected governor of Maguindanao in the May 10 elections.

The Mangudadatus have blamed the Ampatuans for the killings, specifically pointing to former mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town as the leader of more than 100 armed men who abducted Mangudadatu’s supporters.

The Ampatuans denied any involvement in the massacre.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court is handling the multiple murder charges filed against 197 suspects, including members of the Ampatuan clan, who are all detained at the detention center at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig. Quezon City Judge Vivencio Baclig is currently conducting the hearing on the separate rebellion charges filed against the Ampatuan clan members.

Manuel represents some of the 196 accused, including Misuari Ampatuan, Moktar Daud, Norman Tatak, among others, who face multiple murder charges before the Quezon City RTC Branch 221.

During the continuation of the hearings yesterday, Manuel asked if Cabrera had asked the relatives of the 12 victims if the victims had illnesses prior to their death, to which Cabrera answered in the affirmative.

Manuel then asked if it was possible that the victims died of their illnesses before they sustained their gunshot wounds.

Cabrera insisted that the victims had died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Manuel then cited cases of heart ailment, asthma, seizure or epilepsy or even acute appendicitis that he said could have erupted before the gunshots were fired at the victims.

“In that kind of situation, these (illnesses) could have been triggered and could have been the cause of death,” Manuel told reporters after his cross-examination.

On the sidelines of the hearing, private prosecutor Harry Roque described Manuel’s insinuations as “ridiculous.”

“Each of them (victims) sustained at least nine gunshot wounds. How could they (victims) have inflicted those contusions upon themselves,” Roque said.

Manuel told reporters that Cabrera’s medico-legal findings that the victims had died of gunshot wounds were “inaccurate.”

The defense lawyer even raised the possibility of necrophilia in the case of Cecille Lechonsito.

Manuel explained that somebody else “who probably had necrophilia” could have touched Lechonsito’s remains between the time of her death up to the time Cabrera performed the autopsy on her body. He said a lot of things could have happened during that period, which may explain the presence of seminal fluids in the victim’s vaginal canal.

Manuel also questioned why Cabrera only relied on the word of the relatives in the identification of the bodies recovered from the massacre site.

”There might be a possibility that a person had posed as a relative,” Manuel said.

In a related development, the prosecution yesterday asked the court to continue hearing a petition asking to free the daughter and grandchildren of Zacaria Sangki from the custody of the Ampatuans.

Sangki claimed in the petition that Rebecca Ampatuan, respondent in the petition, has been holding his daughter Amina Sangki Ampatuan and her two children inside their house in Shariff Aguak to get back at Amina’s brother, Ampatuan Mayor Rasul Sangki.

Sangki is a prosecution witness who had implicated prime suspect former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. in the massacre.

Amina is the wife of former Mamasapano mayor Bhanarin Ampatuan, who is also among the 196 individuals charged in court.

Rebecca, daughter of clan patriarch Andal Sr., earlier filed before the Supreme Court’s Second Division a petition for certiorari against the elder Sangki’s habeas corpus request.

Sangki said proceedings on their request for the issuance of a writ of a habeas corpus should already continue after the Supreme Court dismissed last December Rebecca’s petition for certiorari.

Sangki also asked Judge Reyes to order the National Bureau of Investigation to serve the writ of habeas corpus.