Prosecution accuses judge in rebellion case of 'partiality'

(Update 3:20 p.m.) The rebellion trial for members of the Ampatuan clan on Monday hit yet another snag after the prosecution moved for the inhibition of the judge handling the case. In its motion filed last Friday, the prosecution panel headed by lawyer Lamberto Fabros accused Judge Vivencio Baclig of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 77 of being "partial and biased against the people of the Philippines." Reporters only learned about the motion on Monday during the resumption of the joint hearing on two other motions earlier filed in connection with the rebellion charges against clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., several of his relatives, and a number of armed civilians. "I am informing the defense about the filing of a motion to inhibit for alleged bias towards the people of the Philippines," Baclig said before the start of the trial at around 9 a.m. In its seven-page motion, the prosecution said Baclig "has lost the cold neutrality to render a fair ruling on the case," adding that the judge seemed to have already "rendered" a decision on the rebellion case. During the course of the rebellion trial, Baclig, the prosecution claimed, seemed to be displaying "strong antagonism against the government." “The honorable judge has prejudiced the instant case… and failed to observe the procedure laid down in the Rules of Court," the prosecution added.
The prosecution's motion prompted the QC judge to once again reset the hearing. Last week, the trial did not push through after the defense asked Baclig for a reschedule after the prosecution faced the court without the complete set of the evidence it had earlier vowed to present. The prosecution earlier agreed to present intelligence and inventory reports, as well as photographs of confiscated firearms in Maguindanao, to justify the government's move to place the province under martial law last December 4. Right to file motion Asked to comment on the inhibition move, lawyer Philip Sigfrid Fortun, counsel for Andal Sr., said: "The prosecution says they have factual basis. But I have yet to see the motion. In any case, it's their right to file that if they don't trust the judge." The hearing ended before 10 a.m. and the next hearing was set for February 26, which was likewise the deadline of the defense to comment on the motion for inhibition. The joint hearings are being conducted for the judicial determination of probable cause for the rebellion charges and for the motion of the defense to defer the transfer of detention of the accused individuals from Mindanao to detentions cells in Taguig City in Manila. It was not the first time that a judge handling a case that stemmed from the Maguindanao carnage last November 23 was asked to inhibit. Two weeks ago, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the QC-RTC Branch 221, handling the multiple murder case of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Jr., was accused by the defense, led by Fortun, of being "inept and biased" in handling the case. [See: Ampatuan defense lawyers want judge off murder case] The judge has yet to rule on the motion for recusation or inhibition but has scheduled the multiple murder hearing on February 24. - RSJ, GMANews.TV