QC court junks Maguindanao massacre suspects' plea on arraignments

The Quezon City judge hearing the Maguindanao massacre case has denied two requests made by principal suspect Andal Ampatuan Sr and son Andal Jr concerning their previous arraignments. The junking of the Ampatuans' omnibus motion was contained in a two-page ruling issued by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City last August 9. The father and son earlier pleaded not guilty to 57 counts of murder for the November 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre in Ampatuan town. In their latest omnibus motion, however, Andal Jr requested that he be "re-arraigned" in light of an amended information against him, wherein the name of a place mentioned in the original charge sheet is "Malating" and was replaced with "Salman" in the amended version. Salman is the village where the gruesome carnage happened, while Malating is a Sitio in Salman, where the massacre suspects were said to have set up a checkpoint to block the convoy of the victims before killing them. In her decision, Solis-Reyes said the court found no need to re-arraign Andal Jr because of the change of the name of the place. "The change from Malating to Salman is not a substantial information which necessitates re-arraignment of accused Andal Jr," Solis-Reyes said. Considering the change as only concerning "form" and "not an element of the crime," Solis-Reyes maintained that the "amendment will [not] affect jurisdiction of this court." Andal Jr, a former mayor of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao, was first arraigned in January 2010 and pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges lodged against him. A month later, he pleaded not guilty to 15 more counts of murder. On the other hand, Solis-Reyes also turned down a request made by the clan patriarch Andal Sr to "recall" his arraignment, pending the resolution of several "incidents" in connection with the massacre case filed before the Department of Justice. The judge said that since Andal Sr has already been arraigned last June 1, wherein he pleaded not guilty, the Ampatuans' omnibus motion has likewise been rendered "moot." The father and son, as well as 195 others, including their other relatives, local policemen in Maguidnanao, and supposed members of the clan's private army are charged with murder for the death of 57 people, including 32 journalists, on the hilly portion of Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town.— LBG, GMA News