Ampatuan furlough stirs outrage
COTABATO CITY – Relatives of the victims of the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre have aired their indignation over the unannounced grant of a furlough by a local court to suspect Zaldy Ampatuan to attend the wedding of his daughter at a posh hotel in Metro Manila last Tuesday.
Aggrieved relatives led by Maguindanao senior Board Member Jazzer “King” Mangudadatu said Ampatuan’s furlough bespoke of “implied mockery” of justice and unwittingly boosted the detainee’s claim about his eventual permanent freedom from jail.
Mangudadatu said the absence of notice to complainant-relatives about the furlough grant has fanned suspicion that money commands influence in the justice system. “Ang mga hurado ba ay nababayaran pa rin ng salapi ngayon?” he asked.
The official was 13 years old when his pregnant mother, Ginalyn, two aunts, and 55 other people were killed on November 23, 2009 in a secluded village in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.
Thirty-two of the fatalities were media workers, including Manila Bulletin’s Bong Reblando who just got appointed as staff reporter barely two months before his death. They were to cover Ginalyn’s supposed filing of gubernatorial candidacy of her husband, then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, in Shariff Aguak town.
Ampatuan, who was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at the time of the massacre, was captured on video waltzing with his daughter Nur Aila aka Kristina on a dance floor in Manila’s Sofitel hotel on August 21.
The video was posted on Facebook evening that day by Tawi-Tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali, one of the 60 wedding sponsors.
Board Member Mangudadatu said the four-hour furlough of Ampatuan indicated a presence of “VIP treatment” at the Bicutan detention facility.
“The prosecution vigorously opposed Zaldy Ampatuan’s motion for furlough to attend his daughter’s wedding, but the court granted the motion for humanitarian reasons,” said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra following protests by the Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
But the NUJP argued that while it is a parent’s desire to be present at his/ her child’s wedding, “the crime of which Mr. Ampatuan is accused of is of such a heinous nature that it stirred shock and outrage around the world.”
About two months ago, President Duterte instructed government prosecutors to secure even a partial conviction of the principal suspects in the carnage.