‘Arroyo govt setting stage to let Ampatuans go scot-free’

(Update 2 - 7:47 PM) The Arroyo administration could be setting the stage for the Ampatuans to escape punishment, a former justice secretary told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. "I don't think that the government can prove that the Ampatuans are guilty of rebellion...The move to file rebellion charges against them could be a deliberate way to let the Ampatuans go scot-free," former senator Franklin Drilon said. As the Aquino administration’s justice secretary in 1990, Drilon filed a rebellion complexed with murder case against Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, a year after the latter’s alleged involvement in a coup attempt. Drilon said there could be no evidence that the Ampatuans caused any part of Maguindanao "to shift allegiance away from the government." The Ampatuans are the ones in power so it would be impossible for them to become the rebels. "How can they rebel against themselves?" Drilon asked. Why establish own state? Earlier, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said rebellion charges were based on findings that the Ampatuans were amassing arms as part of a plan to put up their own government. [See: Arroyo report to Congress on martial law declaration in Maguindanao] So far, the administration has failed to explain how the Ampatuans, who are close allies of Mrs. Arroyo, were supposed to establish their own state. In the 2004 presidential polls, Maguindanao, headed by Andal Ampatuan Sr., delivered close to 200,000 votes to Mrs. Arroyo. Similarly, during the 2007 senatorial elections, the province delivered a 12-0 sweep for the administration's Team Unity. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, former Armed Forces chief of staff, earlier accused the administration of hatching a "sinister plot" for the Ampatuans to get off the hook. He echoed the position of his several colleagues at the Senate that there was neither rebellion not invasion in Maguindanao. [See: Congressmen praise, but senators assail martial law] Lawyer Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles, who has handled cases of military officers accused of mutiny and rebellion, some shared Drilon and Biazon's view. She said rebellion charges would not stand in the absence of rebellion itself. Article 134 of the Revised Penal Code says rebellion is committed "by rising publicly and taking arms against the government for the purpose of removing from the allegiance to said government or its laws… depriving the Chief Executive or Legislature, wholly or partially, of any of their powers or prerogatives." Angeles said there should be an “actual rebellion" and not just threats of an uprising. “You can charge them with rebellion if there is an overt act. It is easy to acquit them of rebellion because it will be difficult to prove that there is an actual rebellion happening. There does not appear any overt act of rebellion and taking up of arms," Angeles told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Subsumed? Critics of martial law have also voiced fears that the murder charges would be subsumed and weakened by the rebellion charges and lead to the exoneration of the accused.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Butch Abad, campaign manager of the Liberal Party, earlier said the status of the Ampatuans would be elevated from criminal to political offenders by charging them with rebellion. Angeles said rebellion is a political offense while multiple murder is criminal. Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, also said rebellion is a bailable offense unless the accused is proven to be the leader, while multiple murder, a capital offense, is nonbailable. Colmenares further noted that those found guilty of rebellion can be granted amnesty, while those convicted of murder do not have the same privilege. In the meantime, chief state prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said that multiple murder charges filed against Ampatuan Jr. “will proceed independently." The case “will have a process of its own," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Tuesday. -ARCS, RJAB Jr. GMANews.TV