Ampatuan camp cries prosecutorial abuse in massacre case

The camp of Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his son Andal Jr., both implicated in the high-profile Maguindanao massacre case, has cried foul over what it perceived as "abuse" of prosecution lawyers. In a 28-page opposition, the Ampatuan’s legal counsel Sigfrid Fortun said both public and private prosecutors seemed to be committing "serious mismanagement" of the case after they requested that suspect Sultan Baroquis Vice Mayor Zukarno Badal be dropped from the murder charge sheet. The prosecution earlier said it wants to turn Badal, who surrendered to authorities on November 7 last year and was extended government protection, into a state witness. The government considers Badal as a key witness in the case because he was said to be one of the gunmen in the November 23, 2009 killing of 57 people, including 32 journalists, in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. "There are matters, material in the case, which the prosecution believes only Badal has knowledge," the prosecution argued in their motion to admit information. But in their opposition, Fortun insisted that Badal "appears to be the most guilty accused" among the 197 people charged with 57 counts of murder. Apart from Badal and the Ampatuan father and son, other accused individuals are local policemen and private militiamen supposedly controlled by the Ampatuan clan. "[The motion] violates the law, the rules, the jurisprudence on exclusion of an accused and highlights the serious mismanagement by the prosecution of the handling of the cases amounting to prosecutorial abuse," Fortun said. Fortun said that the fact the prosecution is alleging a "conspiracy" in the Maguindanao massacre meant that it should not make "underhanded moves" to grant immunity to "clearly undeserving accused such as Badal." Badal was scheduled to have been arraigned last month, but the Witness Protection Program (WPP) failed to bring him to the makeshift court inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City where the trial is being held bi-weekly. The Supreme Court is expected to hold a pilot test of streaming the proceedings over the Internet on Wednesday, after it earlier ruled to allow live broadcast of the trial. Almost 90 suspects in the massacre are detained inside Camp Bagong Diwa, while 100 more are still at large. Around 60 suspects have already been arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charges, including Andal Sr. and Andal Jr. All the victims, except for five, were members of an electoral convoy that were supposed to register Ampatuan rival and then Buluan vice mayor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu in the May 2010 elections. The journalists hopped along to cover the event. Mangudadatu eventually won the elections and is now Maguindanao governor. — KBK, GMA News