Judge in Ampatuan trial junks 4 more inhibition requests

The Quezon City judge handling the Maguindanao massacre case has denied four separate motions asking for her inhibition. In a six-page omnibus order, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the QC Regional Trial Court Branch 221 rejected the petitions for recusations filed by the suspects, Andal Ampatuan Jr. and his father, Andal Sr. “She is certainly not infallible, but she stands pat on the correctness of the rulings she made during the bail hearings. Thus it is her humble opinion that no valid cause exists for the Presiding Judge to inhibit," Solis-Reyes said in her order. In one of the motions for recusation, the defense accused Solis-Reyes of being “biased" when she asked a counsel of one of the accused to explain why a nurse and doctor had been allowed to visit his detention cell. In her order, Solis-Reyes cited a Supreme Court ruling saying there is no “hard and fast rule" when deciding on inhibition requests. “The issue of voluntary inhibition is primarily a matter of conscience and good discretion on the part of the judge," she said. The multiple junking came more than five months after Solis-Reyes denied the first motion for recusation filed in connection with the case. Andal Jr's camp later filed a motion for reconsideration, but Solis-Reyes junked it in her latest order containing the denial of the four other recusation requests. She said she found “no cogent reason to modify or reconsider the order dated March 18, 2010." The denial of a total of five recusation requests leaves Solis-Reyes with two remaining motions for recusation: the sixth one filed by Andal Jr. and another one filed by another accused, Sajid Ampatuan. Most of the arrested suspects in connection with the bloody carnage, including members of the powerful Ampatuan clan, are detained at the Quezon City Jail Annex Building inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. Meanwhile, upon orders from the court, a number of suspects had already been moved out of the Taguig City facility and transferred to the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City. The prosecution had requested that those suspects, all policemen, be moved out due to alleged threats they face after signifying their willingness to turn into state witnesses. The suspects ordered transferred were Inspector Sukarno Dicay, SPO1 Eduardo Ong, PO3 Felix Enate, Jr., PO3 Anton Rasid, PO3 Abdulgani Abibudin, PO2 Saudi Pasutan, PO2 Nana Hamad, PO2 Saudiar Ulah, PO2 Hernani Saulong Decupido, Jr., PO1 Esmael Guialal, PO1 Abdullah Baguadatu, PO1 Esprielito Lejarso, PO1 Herich Amaba, and PO1 Michael Madsig. A total of 57 people were killed in the Nov. 23 massacre, 32 of them journalists. - Mark Dalan Merueñas/KBK, GMANews.TV