Prosecution still wants 4 Maguindanao massacre suspects to become state witnesses

The prosecution panel in the Maguindanao massacre case on Wednesday said it would ask Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 to reconsider her ruling preventing four suspects' from becoming state witnesses. Regional Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Medalle insisted that the prospective state witnesses' testimonies were "necessary" and not merely "corroborative," contrary to what Solis-Reyes said in her 18-page ruling last Tuesday. He said their camp is preparing to file a motion for reconsideration. In her ruling, Solis-Reyes said Police Inspectors Rex Ariel Diongon, Michael Macaraeg, PO1 Rainer Ebus and Mohammad Sangki's testimonies were merely "corroborative in nature." Diongon, Macaraeg, and Ebus belonged to a group of local policemen who allegedly manned a checkpoint at Barangay Salman, where the 57 massacre victims were flagged down before being killed on a hilly portion of the village. Sangki, meanwhile, was a Sangguniang Bayan official in Datu Abdullah Sangki town in Maguindanao. Diongon, then head of the 1508th Regional Mobile Group in Maguindanao, earlier testified that he was present in a November 19, 2009 meeting between prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. and various police heads in the province. During the meeting, Andal Jr. allegedly asked Diongon if he could "kill members of the electoral convoy." Diongon said he said "Yes" to Andal Jr. only because of fear. For his part, Ebus said he saw Andal Jr. shoot around 40 of the 57 members of the electoral convoy that included the wife of then gubernatorial bet Esmael “Toto" Mangudadatu, his two sisters, lawyers, supporters, and 32 journalists. Meanwhile, Sangki testified that he witnessed the incident from the time Andal Jr. and his private army intercepted the convoy led by the wife of then-Buluan town vice mayor Esmael “Toto" Mangudadatu, up to the time the victims were killed. But Solis-Reyes said an accused should only be converted into a state witness when there is "absolute necessity for the testimony... and when he alone has knowledge of the crime [and not] simply corroborate or otherwise strengthen the evidence." In response to the judge's ruling, Medalle said: "We respect the position of the court but their [suspects] testimony is necessary." Ebus said he was not aware of the judge's decision, although he added that he was not at all worried even if they had been disallowed to become state witnesses. - KBK, GMA News