DOJ: Cop’s recantation in massacre case no big loss

"No big loss." This was how the Department of Justice described on Wednesday the recantation of a policeman who had linked members of the Ampatuan clan to last year’s Maguindanao massacre. "Confident pa kami kasi nag-evaluate ang prosecution panel. Sa evaluation nila, tight pa rin ang kaso (We are still confident the case against the Ampatuans remains tight)," DOJ Secretary Agnes Devanadera said in an interview on dzXL radio. She also said the DOJ was not surprised over the recantation of Maguindanao policeman PO1 Anwar Masukat, who in his first affidavit claimed Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. had masterminded the Nov. 23 carnage. "From the start we expected things like this to happen. But we still have very good witnesses and very solid evidence. So this will not affect the case," Devanadera said. Masukat, in his recantation, pointed to Ampatuan Vice Mayor Rasul Sangki as the one who led the armed men in blocking the Mangudadatu convoy before the massacre. Masukat said his first statement to the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group on Dec. 12, 2009 was false. He claimed the police and a lawyer had told him to sign the untruthful affidavit or else he would be charged with multiple murder. "Realizing that the affidavit did not contain my truthful statement, I adamantly refused to sign it. It was then that (SPO2 Larry Diaz) and (lawyer Armando Fabros) told me that murder cases will be filed against me and that they could not prevent that from happening unless I sign the counter-affidavit they had prepared and willfully falsify statements," he said. In the meantime, Devanadera said government prosecutors would continue working on the multiple murder charges against suspects in the massacre of at least 57 people. She declined to elaborate. "We do not want to preempt our prosecutors but this early I can say they will come out soon with a resolution on the multiple murder charges," she said in Filipino. — LBG/RSJ/NPA, GMANews.TV