Senate resolution seeks live coverage of Ampatuan trial

Senator Francis Pangilinan filed a resolution expressing the Senate's view that the Maguindanao massacre trial should be open to live media coverage. Senate Resolution 186 seeks to express the opinion of the Senate that the court proceedings of the multiple murder trial should be made public through live radio and television coverage. "While the accused is entitled to due process, the victims, their families and more importantly, the public, also have the right to be informed of the actual, transparent and impartial court proceedings of the Maguindanao massacre," Pangilinan said. "It would be in the best interest of our judiciary to have transparency in the judicial process, especially in such an unprecedented case of brutality that captured the attention of the international media," he added in a separate statement released on Wednesday. Earlier, media groups and the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre also urged the Supreme Court to review the ruling that bars the live media coverage of the multiple murder trial. The resolution was issued a day before relatives of the victims were scheduled to file a formal petition questioning a Supreme Court decision barring the live media coverage of the multiple murder trial. Technical working group Senate Resolution 186 was referred to the Senate committtee on rules, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III. In an interview with reporters, Sotto said his committee has decided to create a technical working group (TWG) to tackle all the resolutions referred to them. "The committee on rules is empowered, the chairman is empowered to call on any or to report on any resolution at any time," he said. He added that the TWG would create the parameters needed to approve and recommend the resolutions. However, he did not mention when they aim to tackle Pangilinan's resolution. Ampatuan massacre The Maguindanao massacre, also known as the Ampatuan massacre, occurred on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province in Mindanao. At the time, the massacre victims were on their way to file Esmael Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for Maguindanao governor. Mangudadatu, then Buluan vice mayor, won the gubernatorial post during the May 10 polls. The 57 people who were brutally killed and buried in a mass grave in Ampatuan town included Mangudadatu's wife, his two sisters, journalists, lawyers, aides, and motorists who were witnesses or were mistakenly identified as part of the convoy. Jurisprudence on live media coverage The SC issued this jurisprudence or "Administrative Matter" (A.M.) barring live media coverage of trials: A.M. No. 01-04-03-SC Re: Request for Radio-TV Coverage of the Trial in the Sandiganbayan of the Plunder Cases against Former Pres. Joseph E. Estrada, Secretary of Justice Hernando Perez, Kapisanan ng Mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, et al. v. Joseph E. Estrada and Integrated Bar of the Philippines; June 29, 2001, September 13, 2001, and March 14, 2006. "Unlike other government offices, courts do not express the popular will of the people in any sense which, instead, are tasked to only adjudicate justiciable controversies on the basis of what alone is submitted before them. A trial is not a free trade of ideas, Nor is a competing market of thoughts the known test of truth in a courtroom," the SC said in the jurisprudence. "The Court is not all that umnindful of recent technological and scientific advances but to chance forthwith the life or liberty of any person in a hasty bid to use and apply them, even before ample safety nets are provided and the concerns heretofore expressed are aptly addressed, is a price too high to pay," the SC added. — RSJ/VVP, GMANews.TV