Ampatuan suspects plead not guilty
to murder of 58th victim

by Cong B. Corrales

A QUEZON CITY COURT today arraigned 78 Maguindanao Massacre suspects for the murder of the 58th victim, but deferred the arraignment of suspected mastermind and clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and several others due to “pending unresolved motions.”

The 78 who were arraigned for the murder of Sultan Kudarat photojournalist Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay include former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, his brother Andal Jr, and 76 others. They all pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder.

Momay had not been included in the original list of murder victims because his body was never found. Under Philippine law, several years have to lapse before a missing person is declared legally dead.

The court however decided to defer the arraignment of Andal Sr., five other clan members, and seven other suspects for Momay’s murder because of several motions they had previously filed before the court.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chairperson Rowena Paraan, in an update emailed to media organizations, reported that Zaldy, Andal Jr., and the others who were arraigned had entered a not guilty plea. The Ampatuan trial is being held by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

“However, pending unresolved motions, the court deferred the arraignment of clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., five other clan members, and seven other suspects,” Paraan said. Andal Sr. and the other Maguindanao massacre suspects had earlier pleaded not guilty for the murders of 57 other massacre victims.

Paraan said there are 196 suspects in the Maguindanao massacre, considered the worst case of election violence in the Philippines, and the worst single case of media murders in the world. Of these suspects, only 106 have been arrested, and no one has been convicted in the four years since charges were filed.

It can be recalled that Momay was formally included as a victim eight months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) found probable cause to file a case on his behalf.

Although Momay’s body remains missing to this day, police Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) found his dentures and a jacket–identified by his daughter Reynafe Momay-Castillo as his father’s — wrapped around the body of another victim at the crime scene in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province.

The Ampatuan massacre, which has led international media organizations to declare every 23rd of November as the International Day to End Impunity, claimed 58 individuals, 32 of whom were media workers. In its latest special report on Impunity Index, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has ranked the Philippines third worst in the world. Worse, the country ranked third for the fourth consecutive year.

“The insecurity of witnesses is a key problem in addressing impunity. Authorities in the Philippines, ranked third worst on CPJ’s index, have yet to make headway in the prosecution of dozens of suspects in a politically motivated massacre in Maguindanao province that claimed the lives of more than 50 people, including 32 journalists and media workers, in 2009. Three witnesses in the Maguindanao case have themselves been murdered, one of them dismembered and mutilated,” the report reads.