‘Missing’ witness in Maguindanao massacre case surfaces

Months after disappearing from public eye, a medico-legal expert who was supposed to testify against the accused in the Maguindanao massacre trial has finally surfaced, court records showed. Records from the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City showed a subpoena was finally issued on March 23 to Dr. Tomas Dimaandal, who autopsied the remains of three of the 57 victims of the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. A return of subpoena prepared by court sheriff Nestor Rivera also showed the medico-legal expert "grudgingly acceded" to the order for him to testify. Rivera said Dimaandal paused for "about 10 minutes" before finally signing the original copy of the subpoena. “I told him it would be better for him to coordinate with the [Department of Justice], how important for him to testify," Rivera added. Dimaandal was among those lined up by the prosecution to testify in the high-profile case against prominent members of the Ampatuan clan and their supposed private army. But in November last year, prosecutors learned from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police that Dimaandal resigned from his post in March 2010. Prosecutors said they tried looking for Dimaandal but they haven’t heard from him since. The court has earlier granted a request from the prosecution to issue a subpoena requiring Dimaandal to testify. Dimaandal had prepared the autopsy reports for three of the 57 massacre victims: lawyer Cynthia Oquendo, her father Catalino Oquendo, and Manila Bulletin reporter Alejandro "Bong" Reblando. Dimaandal was among the more than 170 witnesses that the prosecution is planning to present over the course of the trial, which began in January 2010. The 196 suspects in the massacre were slapped with 57 counts of murder. Almost 90 of them have already been arrested while more than 100 are still at large. Each has a bounty of P250,000 to P300,000. — LBG/KBK, GMA News