DOJ conference on massacre case set Tuesday

The Department of Justice (DOJ), under its new head Leila de Lima, will discuss the infamous Maguindanao massacre in a conference Tuesday aimed at strengthening the government’s case against the suspects, some of them members of a known political clan. De Lima said part of the agenda is to determine whether there are pieces of evidence that are not yet turned over to the prosecutors. “The more it is [proceedings] delayed, the more it become risky for the witnesses, hindi lang sa possibility na ma-harrass sila, ma-intimidate, or worse, killed," she said. The prosecution lost a possible witness last month in the person of Suwaib Upham, a self-confessed gunman in the carnage who was killed in Maguindanao province before he could get into the government’s Witness Protection Program. Trial for the multiple murder case against the suspects, which include members of the powerful Ampatuan clan, has been temporarily suspended by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes. A total of 57 people — 32 of them journalists — were killed in what is considered as the worst case of political violence in the country. Invited to attend the DOJ conference are members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the state prosecutors handling the case. Newly installed NBI director Magtanggol Gatdula is also required to attend the conference. De Lima also said her department would look into the reported special treatment being extended by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to the detained members of the Ampatuan clan. “We will continue to monitor BJMP in how they handle the custody," she said. Clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his sons former Datu Unsay, Maguindanao mayor Andal Jr. and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan are among family members detained in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. De Lima particularly zeroed in on Ampatuan Sr.’s use of a luxury vehicle to go to a military hospital in Quezon City last week. He returned to his detention cell last Friday. - KBK, GMANews.TV