Maguindanao massacre ruling out Dec. 19

MANILA — The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) is set to release its ruling on the promulgation of the decadelong Maguindanao massacre case on December 19.

In an order dated November 29 released on Monday, Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-reyes said the promulgation of judgment on the case is “set on December 19, 2019 at 9 in the morning to be held at Quezon City Jail-annex, Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City,”

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, meanwhile, welcomed this development.

“I am glad that we have finally reached the day of reckoning. The prosecution has presented nearly 200 witnesses, and the defense over a hundred, during an intense trial that lasted several years. We thank the judge for her patience and diligence. We trust that she will dispense justice evenhandedly and with the utmost respect for the rule of law,” Guevarra said in a statement.

Government lawyers earlier asked the court trying the Maguindanao massacre case to order principal accused Zaldy Ampatuan’s return to jail from the Makati hospital where he is presently seeking treatment.

In a letter dated Nov. 19 to Solis-reyes, Makati City Jail Superintendent Warden Jhon D. Montero of the Quezon City Jail said Ampatuan remains at a hospital in Makati City less than a month before the deadline of the promulgation of the case.

Montero said Ampatuan had been in the Intensive Care Unit for one week from October 22 to October 29 before he was transferred to a regular room on the afternoon of October 29.