Maute cases transferred from CDO to Taguig RTC

The rebellion cases against arrested members and supporters of the Maute terror group may now proceed after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the transfer of their trial and detention from Cagayan de Oro to Taguig City through an administrative order approved last June 27 but released only yesterday.

The criminal cases will be transferred to Taguig regional trial court (RTC) and the suspects’ detention to the Special Intensive Care Area inside Camp Bagong Diwa from Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro.

In the same order, the SC directed the Taguig court to “speedily act on all prosecutions and incidents arising from the violent incidents in Marawi City involving the Maute group.”

The SC explained, however, that Camp Bagong Diwa is just a “temporary detention facility” as it ordered the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology “to expedite the relocation of the suspects to a suitable detention facility.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier asked the SC to designate special courts in Luzon or the Visayas to hear the cases due to the security threat in Mindanao, which remains under martial law.

But the SC decided to instead designate CDO RTC as special courts to take over the cases from the Marawi RTCs. The court also designated the military’s Camp Evangelista as the detention site for the arrested suspects.

But after an inspection, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II appealed the order, citing the lack of proper detention facilities at Camp Evangelista and the security threats against judges and prosecutors.

Pending action of the SC, prosecutors are seeking suspension of proceedings in the cases against the Maute terrorists before the CDO RTC. The SC granted the DOJ’s appeal in its latest order.

Aguirre welcomed the development. “It will solve a lot of problems like where the detainees are to be confined and wherever we are going to rent a new place to hold the inquest and conduct preliminary investigations,” he said in a text message.