Judge orders arrest of 189 Maguindanao massacre suspects

A Quezon City judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of 189 people including members of the powerful Ampatuan clan and local police officials in Maguindanao province in connection with the massacre of 57 people there last November 23, 2009. This was after Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes approved the prosecution's motion to include these people in the murder hearing of Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr., prime suspect in the massacre case. "This resolves the motion with leave of court to admit the amended information filed last February 9, 2010," read a portion of the order dated March 24. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) have already been furnished with copies of the arrest warrant. Reyes said the arresting agencies are required to submit a report to the court within 10 days if the arrest warrant had been executed. Even if the amended information contained 196 names, Solis-Reyes only issued 189 arrest warrants because six of the suspects are already detained, including clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr, who is under military custody in Davao City. His son and suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan, meanwhile, is detained at the Criminal Investigation Detection Unit of the PNP Region 12, along with other clan members Sajid, Anwar, and Akmad. Two other suspects, Takpan Dilon and Esmael Canapia, are currently detained at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame, Quezon City. Andal Jr., the only individual arraigned for the massacre so far, is detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila. Last week, Solis-Reyes junked the Ampatuan camp's motion asking her to inhibit from the case for alleged bias. The murder trial was suspended indefinitely last February due to the number of pending motions and show cause orders. Currently, all motions have been resolved except for the three show cause orders filed by the defense, accusing the prosecution of violating the sub judice rule. Earlier, Andal Sr. had also asked the judge to suspend the hearings while several policemen asked that their names be stricken off the list of charged individuals. But Solis-Reyes only "noted" these motions, agreeing with the prosecution's comment that they were considered "premature" because they were filed before the amended information was approved. The murder proceedings have yet to resume, pending a resolution of the Supreme Court on a motion to transfer the hearing from Camp Crame to Taguig City. — LBG/KBK, GMANews.TV