MANILA – An administration lawmaker on Saturday demanded that the government file terrorism, not murder, charges against the suspects in the massacre of 57 people in a major eruption of what is now considered as the worst election-related violence in strife-torn Mindanao.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the massacre violates the provisions of the country’s anti-terrorism law, officially known as the Human Security Act of 2009, because the suspects “were, in effect, spitting with impunity at the rule of law.”
Santiago added: “The perpetrators committed murder, thereby sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace in order the coerce the government go give in to unlawful demand.”
She proposed that the Department of Justice, which is handling the criminal cases arising from the massacre, to immediately amend the charges from multiple murder as originally planned o terrorism before these are filed in court..
Santiago explained this should be the government’s first priority before it is to file the charges at the first official working day in Cotabato City, Mindanao on Tuesday. The country is on a three-day holiday, starting Saturday until Monday which is National Heroes Day.
According to the senator, the amendment of the charges is vital before the prime suspect is to be arraigned and enter what is widely believed to be a “not guilty” plea in court.
Under the Human Security Act of 2009, a single terroristic act is punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 40 years without the possibility of parole.
So far, the government has in its custody the prime suspect in the massacre which continues to draw mounting protests and denunciations from officials and groups both here in the Philippines and throughout the world.
He is Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the son and namesake of Governor Andal Ampatuan of Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), along with Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Marawi City.
The patriarch heads a strong and influential clan in Mindanao, which has strong political ties with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The younger Ampatuan, the mayor of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao, is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters in Manila after he was tagged by the police as the principal suspect in the massacre of the wife, two sisters and other women relatives of the scion of a rival clan in the province.
The victims, along with two women lawyers and about 30 Mindanao-based journalists, were in a convoy, composed of five vehicles, on their way to file a certificate of candidacy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office in the capital town of Shariff Aguak when they were abducted and massacred Monday morning.
Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan town, admitted he had asked his wife and other women family members in the company of the journalists to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao in the May 2010 elections. Reports are that he is to run against Mayor Andal who is being groomed by his father to succeed him because he is now on his third and final term.
On Friday, Mangudadatu took the same route his wife and her party had taken to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao in Shariff Aguak and file the same documents with the Comelec office.
But this time, he was accompanied by former defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro, the standard bearer of the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats in next year’s polls, and escorted by battle-ready military and police escorts.
This developed as Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera reported that eight more members of the Ampatuan clan are now considered as suspects because they were implicated by witnesses to the massacre.
As a result, Devanadera said that as justice secretary, she immediately issued a hold-departure order to the Bureau of Immigration to prevent the eight from leaving the country.
Devanadera identified the additional suspects as Maguindanao Governor Ampatuan, his son Zaldy, the governor of ARMM, as well as his other sons and relatives, including Akmad, Saudi Junior, Bahnarian Junior, Sajid Islam, Nor and Akhmad “Tato” Senior, also all surnamed Ampatuan.
At the same time, Devanadera said the continuing police and military investigation has unearthed more evidence and witnesses now willing to testify and strengthen their case against Mayor Andal and the other suspects.
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