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Andal Jr. pleads not guilty to multiple murder charges


(Updated 3:42 p.m.) Witnesses said Andal Ampatuan Jr. ordered his family's private militia to stage the worst incident of political violence in Philippine history. But in his arraignment on Tuesday, the scion of a powerful political family in Mindanao pleaded not guilty to the 41 multiple murder charges lodged against him for allegedly masterminding the November 23 massacre in a town named after them. A GMA Flash Report said Andal Jr., the prime suspect in the massacre of 57 people that included 31 journalists, made the plea during his arraignment at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
The mayor of Datu Unsay town has long denied ordering his family’s private militia of more than 160 men to carry out the mass slaughter in Ampatuan town. The trial was presided over by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes and was held at a multi-purpose hall in Camp Crame’s Police Non-Commissioned Officers Clubhouse. Petition vs DOJ At the start of the hearing, Solis-Reyes first tackled the respondents' petition seeking the issuance of a show cause order against the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Ampatuan camp questioned the DOJ for requiring Andal Jr. to attend the preliminary investigation in December, citing the incident where the suspect was mobbed by angry journalists on his way to the venue. Solis-Reyes gave the DOJ three days to comment on the petition, and the defense three days also to respond for the rejoinder. Native tongue The reading of charges against Andal Jr. was briefly interrupted when defense counsel Sigfrid Fortun requested that the charges be read in the Maguindanaoan dialect, claiming his client could understand neither English nor Filipino. When no interpreter could be found for the arraignment, Andal Jr was left with no choice but be arraigned in English. The court also tackled Andal Jr.'s petition for bail. Supreme Court spokeperson Midas Marquez, who arranged the holding of the hearing inside the PNP, said he did not think lawyers from both camps were surprised that a number of matters were first tackled before the actual purpose of the hearing - which is to hear the motion for bail. "The lawyers I believe expected that. Kapag ganyang hearing handa ang abogado sa anomang pwedeng mangyari," he said. "Ang nakasalang ay bail but anything can happen before the petition for bail," Marquez said. First witness Government prosecutors presented National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) anti-terrorism division head Ricardo Diaz as a witness, according to a report by GMA's Chino Gaston. Diaz described the process of NBI's investigation, and presented documents and videos and pictures of the massacre site, which the prosecution asked to be admitted as part of the evidence. Initially, Fortun expressed objection when the pieces of evidence were being presented, and said his camp should first be given a chance to have a pre-trial conference to examine the evidence. Solis-Reyes clarified that Tuesday's hearing was just "summary proceedings in nature" and was not yet the hearing proper for the petition for bail. Fortun also argued that the videos and photos should not be marked as evidence because Diaz was not the one who personally took the photographs, which, Diaz admitted, were provided by the military. Solis-Reyes upheld Fortun's move, saying that the material could be used later as the trial progresses. Ordinary criminal Before the hearing ended, lawyer Harry Roque, representing the families of journalists killed in the massacre, also requested that Andal Jr. be transferred from the NBI headquarters to the Quezon City jail, just like any ordinary suspected criminal. But Judge Solis-Reyes asked Roque to make his request formal by filing a petition during the next hearing. Asked to comment on the transfer of detention, Fortun said in a radio dzMM interview: "Wala pa kaming comment doon dahil malayo pa yun eh. (We don't have any comment on that yet since that is still far away)." Andal Jr. arrived at the trial venue in Camp Crame from NBI headquarters in Manila two hours earlier than the scheduled 8:30 a.m. arraignment. He was handcuffed and was wearing a bulletproof vest. The trial ended 10:30 a.m. The next hearings on the murder charges were set to January 13 and 20. Immediately after Tuesday's hearing, Andal Jr. was whisked backed to his cell in NBI and arrived at 11:15 a.m. After the trial, Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez talked to the media and introduced artist Ala Parades, daughter of singer Jim Paredes, who showed her sketches of the trial. Media was not allowed to take footage of court proceedings. The day of the bloodbath On the day of the bloodbath, armed men believed to be under the control of the powerful Ampatuan clan took hostage the entire convoy led by the wife of Buluan town Vice Mayor Ismael "Toto" Mangudadatu which was on its way to the provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak to file Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for governor. All the hostages were driven to an isolated hillside and murdered, some after being mutilated and raped. Soldiers arrived before the killers could conceal all the bodies and their vehicles in mass graves. Andal Jr. was believed to be being groomed to be the successor of his father, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. The convoy included two lawyers and 31 journalists out to cover the event. Many of the bodies of the victims were later found buried in a mass grave. [See: The Ampatuan Massacre: a map and timeline] The massacre is believed to be the worst election-related violence in Philippine history, and the bloodiest incident in the history of journalism. It has been strongly condemned locally and internationally. [See: 'Worst loss of life in one day in the history of journalism'] Before the start of the hearing, Mangudadatu expressed confidence that the trial will lead to Andal Jr.'s conviction. He called on the public to remain vigilant about the multiple murder case. "Magtulungan po tayo na magdasal na ang mga biktima ay makakuha ng tamang hustisya at ma-found guilty ang gumagawa ng karumal-dumal na krimen (Let us be one in praying that justice would be delivered to the victims and that those who are behind this brutal crime be found guilty)," said Mangudadatu, whose wife Genalyn, was among those killed in the massacre. - with Sophia Dedace, Johanna Camille Sisante and Mark Dalan Merueñas/LBG/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV
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