The Court of Appeals has junked the petition filed by Andal Ampatuan Jr. seeking to nullify the order of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court discharging a former mayor as state witness in the 57 counts of murder filed against him and 196 others in connection with the Maguindanao massacre case.
The CA’s Fifth Division through Associate Justice Myra Garcia-Fernandez ruled that Presiding Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City RTC Branch 221 did not commit grave abuse of discretion when she excluded Sukarno Badal from the list of accused in the Maguindanao massacre case.
“Even if Badal has not been arraigned, but he was provisionally admitted to the (Witness Protection Program) as shown by the certificate issued by the DOJ, Badal may be excluded as an accused upon motion of the public prosecutor as provided under Section 14, Rule 110 of the Rules of Court, as amended,” the CA declared.
Section 14, Rule 110 of the Rules of Court provides that “A complaint or information may be amended, in form or in substance, without leave of court, at any time before the accused enters his plea. After the plea and during the trial, a formal amendment may only be made with leave of court and when it can be done without causing prejudice to the rights of the accused.”
“Petitioner’s argument that respondent judge relinquished her judicial function to the caprices of the prosecution has no leg to stand on,” the appellate court stressed.
The DOJ had filed a motion to defer the arraignment of Badal and allow for amendment of the information excluding him as accused in the case.
The Justice department stressed that there is necessity for Badal’s testimony because there are matters, which according to the prosecution, only he has personal knowledge of.
Badal testified that he was at the massacre site and he saw Andal Jr. firing at the victims.
He claimed that it was Andal Sr. who ordered his son over a two-way radio to kill everyone in the convoy.
Badal also testified that members of the Ampatuan clan had planned to kill then Buluan vice mayor and now Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu in 2009.
He claimed former Autonomous Region in Muslim Maguindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan was supposed to carry out the Manila option of the plot to liquidate Mangudadatu in case he decided to file his candidacy in Manila.
Badal said that Zaldy’s father, Andal Sr., was to lead the plan in Maguindanao, while former ARMM solicitor general Cynthia Sayadi and ex-Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas were to head the Cotabato option.