EDITORIAL - Freed on bail

As the trial of those accused in the Maguindanao massacre – the one in November 2009, not the one last Jan. 25 in Mamasapano – crawls along, a member of the clan believed responsible for the grisly crime has been freed on bail.

Sajid Islam Ampatuan, a son of clan patriarch and former provincial governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., is free after Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes reaffirmed her approval of his bail petition the other day. A former provincial officer-in-charge, Sajid Islam posted a bond of P11.6 million for his provisional liberty. Where that kind of money can come from in one of the country’s most impoverished regions is a mystery.

While Sajid Islam is barred from leaving the country, his release has raised concerns that other members of his family may also be freed soon. Critics have questioned the bail grant for a case involving the brutal killing of 58 people. Concerns have also been raised that allowing the Ampatuans to go free would give them more than enough time before the 2016 elections to revive their involvement in politics in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Sajid Islam is the brother of Andal Jr., who is accused of personally leading the pack of police and militiamen in shooting and then burying 58 people, many of them still in their cars, in a shallow grave on a remote hilltop in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao.

About 300 people are believed to have participated in the mass murder, with about a third of them still at large. Since the massacre, several key witnesses have been murdered or can no longer be located.

Mass murder is an offense that does not allow bail unless the evidence is weak. Of the suspects arrested, 42 have been allowed to post bail. Another 60 defendants, including key members of the Ampatuan clan, have pending bail petitions. Approval of their petition would add to concerns that justice may be impossible in the nation’s worst case of election violence.