MANILA – A senior Cabinet official of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is under fire for allegedly failing to act on the reported attempt by members of a powerful and influential clan to bribe a vital witness into recanting his testimony linking them to the November 23 massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao.
Secretary Leila de Lima said she wants her predecessor Alberto Agra to explain why he did not act on the reported bribery attempt made by the Ampatuan clan headed by its patriarch former Maguinanao governor Andal Ampatuan.
De Lima said the Ampatuans offered a bribe of $200,000 in cash to witness Kenny Dalandag, through an “emissary,” identified as Juanito Mariano, a retired colonel of the Philippine Air Force and a close friend of the clan.
Aside from Agra, De Lima also said she wants former director Nestor Mantaring of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to explain his failure to act on the matter after she ordered the filing of a bribery case against Mariano.
On Tuesday, Ricardo Diaz, the head of the NBI anti-terrorism unit, executed a sworn statement that on June 10, Mariano went to see him at his office and requested to talk to Dalandag.
Diaz said Mariano told him he was sent by the Ampatuans to offer the $200,000 bribe to Dalandag in exchange for withdrawing his testimony linking the clan to the bloodbath, especially Zaldy Ampatuan, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
According to Diaz, he immediately reported the alleged offer to Agra and Mantaring who, however, did not take action.
Diaz added Mariano passed by Mantaring’s office before coming to see him, escorted by two NBI agents.
In particular, families of the victims have denounced the “special treatment” that the Ampatuans have been getting during the Arroyo administration which Malacanang has acknowledged as close political allies of the former president.
Among the victims were 30 Mindanao-based journalists as well as the wife and two sisters of Esmael Mangudadatu, the scion of a rival clan and the newly-elected governor of Maguindanao.
At least six members of the clan, including the patriarch, were among the 196 suspects charged in court for multiple murder on 56 counts are now detained at well-guarded facility in suburban Taguig City, Metro Manila.
When Agra was justice secretary, he issued a controversial memorandum ordering that two of the accused – Zaldy and Akmed Ampatuan – be dropped for alleged lack of evidence.
Cries of protests and denunciations, including those from the government prosecutors handling the case, greeted the order of Agra who insisted he was not bribed nor directed by Malacanang to do so.
But later, Agra made a complete turnaround and ordered the re-inclusion of Zaldy and Akmed in the charge sheet after a thorough review of the evidence gathered.
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