MANILA – Protests, accompanied by jeers and the showing of gory blown-up photos, marked the start of the preliminary hearing in Manila on Friday of the Maguindanao massacre charges attended by the scion of a powerful clan who is the principal accused in the case.
Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao appeared at the Department of Justice during the start of the preliminary investigation of the massacre charges filed against him and other suspects in the massacre.
Mayor Ampatuan was accompanied by heavily-armed agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and presented himself with handcuffs and in leg chains and wearing a bullet proof vest before a five-member panel of justice department prosecutors.
So tight was the security that the mayor and his escort of NBI agents rode in a bullet-proof vehicle that took them to the justice department multi-purpose building where the hearing was held, which was less than a kilometer away from the NBI headquarters in Manila
As Mayor Ampatuan and his escorts wound their way to the venue of the hearing, he was met by jeers and shouts of invectives by protesters, composed mostly of visibly irate journalists wearing black T-shirts and displaying placards bearing blown-up photos of some of the goriest massacre scenes.
One of the journalists even managed to break through the phalanx of policemen who lined up both sides of the way leading to the venue to throw the placard he was carrying at Mayor Ampatuan.
During the hearing, which was covered live on radio and TV, Mayor Ampatuan was also shown to be unconcerned over the entire proceedings as he continuously yawned apparently out of boredom.
Also conspicuously present during the hearing was the scion of a rival clan, Mayor Esmael Mangundadatu of Buluan town, also in Mindanao, whose wife and two sisters were among the massacre victims, along with 30 Mindanao-based journalists.
During the hearing, the lawyer of the Ampatuans told the panel they were waiving their right to present sworn documents to counter the charges. This means, he said, they are submitting the case for the panel to resolve – whether to dismiss the charges or file them in court.
The panel, headed by Senior State Prosecutor Roseann Balauag, clarified that the hearing was intended for the additional charges filed by the NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) against Mayor Ampatuan, other members of the clan as well as more than 200 militiamen, policemen and soldiers allegedly involved in the massacre.
Also included in the new information sheet filed before the justice department by the NBI and the PNP are other members of the clan, composed of their patriarch former governor Andal Ampatuan and at least five other sons.
The NBI and the PNP clarified the additional charges were based on the testimonies and sworn statements of witnesses who reportedly saw the massacre perpetrated by the other suspects, numbering more than 200.
Earlier, the government filed before the Cotabato City lower court in Mindanao multiple murder charges on 40 counts against Mayor Ampatuan for allegedly masterminding the massacre. He is now detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila.
But the Supreme Court granted the government petition to transfer the venue of the trial from Cotabato City to suburban Quezon City in Metro Manila for security reasons and to ensure the safety and protection, particularly of the state witnesses.
The case was raffled off to Judge Luisito Cortez of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, who, however, immediately refused to preside over the “trial of the century,†citing security and safety concerns for himself and that of his family.
On Thursday, the case was raffled anew and landed in the chambers of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, who, unlike Perez, accepted the assignment.
But on Friday, Reyes asked for time to study the case before presiding over the trial of the Ampatuans and their supporters, which is to be held inside the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, also in Quezon City.
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