DAVAO CITY – Local council member Leah Librado said the recent release from jail of Sajid Islam Ampatuan, one of the suspects in the brutal massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao province in 2009, was blatantly unjust as thousands of poor offenders all over the country, including political prisoners who are victims of trumped-up charges could not even be allowed to post bail as the system has apparently criminalized rebellion.
Librado was reacting on the news of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 ordering the release of the young Ampatuan, a son of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr. He posted P200,000 for each of the 58 counts of murder via Travellers Insurance and Surety Corporation.
“This is blatantly unjust as thousands poor offenders all over the country, including political prisoners who are victims of trump-up charges could not even be allowed to post bail as the system has apparently criminalized rebellion. And here comes an Ampatuan, being granted bail, to the detriment of those seeking justice for the victims of the massacre many years ago,” she said.
Librado said that everyone is entitled to the right to post bail and in the case of Ampatuan, he is now allowed to be on temporary liberty, but the act should have been considered in terms of the crime committed and how we are thriving on a culture of impunity.
“Clearly, Ampatuans are warlords, who have ruled it over Maguindanao for the longest time and we have to be careful as they will again sow terror and ride on the susceptible situation we have in Maguindanao right now. The mere act of granting him liberty is a cause for alarm. It tells us that something is very wrong with our penal and justice systems.”
Librado encouraged the people of Davao to condemn the impunity being granted to the rich and privilege few politicians of this country. “How can even a president allow this?” she asked.
More than 200 armed men, many of them militias and policemen, taking orders from the alleged mastermind, Ampatuan, Sr., abducted at gunpoint on a highway in Shariff Aguak town the 58 victims, including over 30 journalists, and brutally killed in a remote location in Ampatuan town.
The journalists were just covering the political convoy of Esmael Mangudadatu, who was challenging Ampatuan, Sr. who is the patriarch of a clan that long held power in the province.
His son and namesake, Andal, Jr., then mayor of Datu Unsay town, and another son, Zaldy Ampatuan, the former regional governor, and several other clan members along with dozens more who are now in jail, had been implicated in the massacre.
The accused have all denied the charges against them. And many witnesses to the gruesome crime had been killed while others were bribed to prevent them from testifying.
The slow progress of the cases is also putting a stress – both psychologically and spiritually – to the families of those who perished in the massacre. Various local and international media groups and organizations have repeatedly appealed to President Benigno Aquino to stop the continued murders of journalists and end impunity in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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