Court orders transfer of massacre suspects to Taguig prison

A QUEZON CITY court has ordered the transfer of two suspects in the massacre of more than 50 people a decade ago to a cell in Taguig City.

Judge Jocelyn A. Solis-Reyes also ordered the two suspects, who were arrested early this year, to enter their plea on Jan. 21.

The court said in a separate order the 58 counts of murder charges against Kagi Faizal and Gambayan M. Kasim had been “revived and returned to the active docket.”

The two were among the estimated 80 suspects who were still at large.

The court last month convicted former Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr. and his brother Zaldy, who is a former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, along with 26 other principal accused for 57 counts of murder.

More than a dozen more people were convicted as accessories to the crime. Their other brother, Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, was acquitted along with more than 50 others.

The massacre took place when family members and the media were accompanying Esmael G. Mangudadatu to the Commission on Elections to file his certificate of candidacy on Nov. 23, 2009. Mr. Mangudadatu was then running for governor of the Mindanao autonomous region to end the 20-year rule of the Ampatuan family.

More than 50 people were murdered, including 32 journalists. New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists called the attack the “worst single incident of journalist killing.”

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan rejected Andal Jr.’s plea to dismiss his graft cases in connection with the allegedly anomalous purchase of fuel by the government of Maguindanao.

The anti-graft court noted that the Ombudsman had found probable cause to indict him.

“Accused Ampatuan’s motion is hereby denied for lack of merit,” it said in a resolution.

Andal Jr., along with other public officers and his late father, Andal S. Ampatuan, Sr. had acted with “manifest partiality” when they awarded the contracts for the supply of fuel and lubricants to Shariff Aguak Petron Station without a public bidding, it said.

Shariff Aguak Petron Station was owned by Andal Jr. — and