The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has submitted for resolution the multiple counts of murder filed against former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and his relatives as well as the other 190 accused in connection with the 58 victims, including 32 journalists, of the Maguindanao massacre on Nov. 23, 2009.
This was after Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Reyes rejected the “repeated” filing of motions by Ampatuan Jr.
Reyes instead gave the defense and the prosecution 15 days to file their own memoranda.
“After the lapse of said period, with or without the parties memoranda, the cases should be deemed submitted for decision,” her six-page order read.
“Happy and excited. Finally, we can wait for the order of the date of promulgation of judgment,” private prosecutor Nena Santos told the Manila Standard.
“[It’s] 15 days to file memorandum. With or without memoranda of the parties, the court will decide the case. We hope this September or October,” she said.
In a resolution, Reyes blocked Ampatuan’s bid to present witnesses and other pieces of evidence in motion and a formal offer of evidence he filed last July 1.
“The Court is of the view that the repeated filing of motions by the accused-movant (Ampatuan) bearing similar allegations, which obviously violates its clear directive pursuant to the order dated May 21, 2019, must be stopped lest the proceedings of these cases will become ad infinitum, thereby resulting not only to the prejudice of the private complainants but also his co-accused as well, who had long terminated the presentation of their evidence,” Reyes’ six-page order read.
Ampatuan had sought additional hearings to be set on Aug. 15, 28 and 29.
Santos and another private prosecutor —Harry Roque—earlier hit Ampatuan for employing delaying tactics to derail the promulgation.
State prosecutors opposed Ampatuan’s motions during a July 11 hearings.
Solis said the court has already granted Ampatuan eight cancellations of hearings, wherein he should have presented his witnesses and evidence, to no avail.
“Also the court, pursuant to the oral request of his counsel, has granted the accused four settings for the presentation of his sur-rebuttal evidence with a warning that should he fail to present his evidence,” she said.
“After presenting one witness, he (Ampatuan) again filed an urgent motion to cancel hearing… offering same reason he invoked before to reset the hearing, i.e… difficulty in obtaining the consent of witnesses to testify due to threat and issue of security of witnesses and their families,” she added.
On Nov. 23, 2009, the wife of then Buluan vice mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu; her sister, lawyer and other relatives, and 38 journalists were on their way to Shariff Aguak to file his certificate of candidacy for the gubernatorial race in the 2010 local elections when armed groups attacked the victims, killed and even buried some of them alive on the orders of the Ampatuan patriarch, the late Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his children.
