Mangudadatu lawyer: Performance behind revamp of prosecution team

(Updated 1:37 p.m.) A private prosecutor in the Maguindanao massacre trial on Tuesday said the reshuffle in the public prosecutors team was based on performance and not on her being a law schoolmate of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. In an interview with GMA News Online, lawyer Nena Santos, legal counsel for Maguindanao Gov. Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu, also belied reports that she and De Lima came from the same class at the San Beda Law School. Santos said she belonged to Class 1984, while De Lima belonged to Class 1985. The head of the public prosecution team that was ordered replaced, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon, was from Class 1987. "Their removal has nothing to do with being schoolmates but with performance," she said. But at a news briefing on Tuesday, De Lima admitted that Santos was her classmate at San Beda although she denied that she influenced her in sacking Fadullon and five other public prosecutors from the high-profile case reportedly for lacking "zeal, aggressiveness, and dynamism." "It was already difficult and in fact, painful for me to make such a choice between public and private prosecutors, particularly the camp of Attorney Nena Santos. I don't deny the fact that she's a former classmate, but that's an irrelevant coincidence. I'd still be able to make such a choice even if it were someone else," De Lima said at the news briefing. Santos, meanwhile, cited a March 23 report by the media watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) assessing the prosecution's performance over a year after trial began in January 2010. GMA News Online is still trying to secure an advanced copy of the report, since it has yet to be published. "It [The CMFR report] will enlighten the public of what had happened one year and four months after the massacre," Santos said without elaborating. The lawyer also told GMA News Online that it would be better not to delve into issues in the past and just focus on what lies ahead for the prosecution. "What is important is that the new panel and the private prosecutors now have that level of trust with each other to serve the ends of justice," she said. Santos also vowed full coordination with the new state panel, which will be led by Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III. "The private prosecutors will give all out cooperation with the new panel – led by Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III – with high level of confidence on their integrity, competence, [and] zealousness to handle the Maguindanao massacre cases," she said. She also expressed hope that the shakeup would pave the way for a "better management of the panel members, private prosecutors, victims and witnesses." De Lima earlier claimed that private prosecutors were the ones presenting most of the witnesses in court, but Fadullon belied this, saying of the 22 witnesses, none came from private prosecutors' side. Fadullon, in an interview Monday, also denied he and his team lacked the effort to prosecute the accused in the massacre, among them members of the powerful Ampatuan clan. He said Baraan, whom De Lima assigned to oversee the coordination between public and private prosecutors in the case, only attended the massacre hearings twice. "So tell me, where was the information from? How are you monitoring? You don't see what is happening because you're not there. If you use the rift as a reason, period, you won't hear anything from me. But if you say we lacked zeal, I will speak up. I have to defend the panel," Fadullon said. Another private prosecutor, Harry Roque, had told GMA News Online that he was hopeful that the squabble among prosecution lawyers would neither adversely affect nor further delay the high-profile case. More than 190 individuals, including prominent members of the influential Ampatuan clan of Maguindanao, are facing 57 counts of murder in connection with the November 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town. Considered the worst election-related, single-day violence, the massacre involved the killings of at least 57 people – mostly belonging to Toto Mangudadatu's electoral convoy – on a hilly part of Barangay Salman. — with Sophia Dedace/LBG/KBK, GMA News