Zaldy to testify but not as state witness, says lawyer

A legal counsel for principal massacre suspect Rizaldy "Zaldy" Ampatuan on Tuesday clarified that his client was willing to testify in the Maguindanao massacre case but not as a "state witness" because doing so would be an admission of guilt. Lawyer Redemberto Villanueva said his client maintains that he did not participate in the planning and carrying out of the gruesome killings of 57 people on a hilly portion of Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town on Nov. 23, 2009. "We never applied to be a state witness since consistently we said we don't know anything about the planning or execution," Villanueva told reporters. In an interview with GMA News' Joseph Morong inside Zaldy's detention cell in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, the suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor said he was willing testify in the case but did not categorically say was turning state witness. "Kung bigyan akong pagkakataon reding-ready po tayo na kahit sino pa man ang involved sa krimen na ito na karumaldumal na dapat papanagutin, reding-ready po ako," Zaldy said. As proof, Villanueva said, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima earlier said that her office, which the Witness Protection Program is under, has not yet received an application from Zaldy to the program. Villanueva stressed that his client made on-cam statements about turning against his relatives because he also wanted to get government protection. Like the massacre victims, Zaldy's family already suffered so much due to the incident, he said. His client also wanted to give a testimony in order to extract "admissible confession" from other individuals accused, the lawyer said. "These confessions of other inmates would [then] be corroborated by other independent evidence. They are more credible and Zaldy has their affidavits," Villanueva said. Villanueva advised the prosecution to give Zaldy's testimony the importance it deserves, rather than "sink or swim with the testimonies on conspiracy of Lakmodin Saliao which are contradicted by documentary evidence." Saliao, a long-time helper of the Ampatuans, turned against the clan and eventually testified in court how those accused had planned and carried out the attack on the electoral convoy of Esmael “Toto" Mangudadatu — the opponent of Andal Ampatuan Jr. for Maguindanao’s gubernatorial seat in the May 2010 elections. — VS, GMA News