By Dona Pazzibugan, PDI
Justice Secretary
Alberto Agra is facing a mutiny over his move clearing two members of the Ampatuan clan in the massacre of 57 people, including 32 media workers, in Maguindanao last year, considered the country’s most brutal election-related killings.
State prosecutors led by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano Monday protested the resolution that Agra issued on the night of April 16 absolving suspended Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and his uncle, Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan Sr., of the murders.
The
prosecutors questioned the basis and the timing of the resolution that Agra issued a day after he assured the families of the victims that he had yet to study the petition for review filed by the detained Ampatuans asking Agra to drop the charges against them.
“We are deeply concerned that the resolution will all the more convince a long skeptical public that our criminal justice system is impotent when the accused are politically influential,†Arellano said, reading a statement on behalf of the 2,000-member National Prosecution Service and the panel of prosecutors handling the case.
Flanked by a number of prosecutors on the steps of the Department of Justice (DoJ) building in Manila at 11 a.m., he said the department was supposed to be the sword and shield of law and order.
Arellano pointed out the irony of the situation in which Agra released the resolution when Zaldy and other members of the clan were being transported from their places of detention in General Santos and Davao cities to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City on orders of the Quezon City judge presiding over the murder trial.
“The court detains, the prosecution arm absolves,†Arellano noted wryly.
Revisit resolution
He said the prosecutors were hoping that justice would ultimately be served to the victims of the tragedy.
“It is along this line that we earnestly and respectfully request Acting Secretary Agra to revisit this resolution.
“Otherwise, we dishonor the primary reason for which our institution exists and its very name: the Department of Justice,†the chief state prosecutor said.
Unprecedented ‘
open war’
Roan Libarios of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines noted that it was the first time that there was an “open war†at the justice department between its secretary and the prosecutors.
“Under ordinary rules, that would be insubordination. But in this case we should support our prosecutors for taking such a risky position based on their principles,†Libarios said.
Arellano said it pained them as professional career prosecutors to publicly disagree with the justice secretary’s resolution.
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