An administration senator on Friday said terrorism and not mere multiple murder charges should be filed against Datu Unsay mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr, the prime suspect in the killing of 57 people, including women and journalist, in Maguindanao earlier this week.
In a press statement, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, a former regional trial court judge, said that the mass murders in Maguindanao is an act of terrorism.
She said that a complaint for multiple murder is insufficient, because “the suspects were in effect spitting with impunity at the rule of law." The senator added even if a multiple murder complaint has been filed, the inquest was probably done in haste, and the complaint should be amended into terrorism, before the accused enters his plea.
"The perpetrators committed murder, thereby sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand," Santiago said.
The declared intention of the Ampatuan clan to prevent the Mangudadatu clan from running for governor is “an unlawful demand," according to the senator.
She said the state prosecutors might have preferred to file a complaint for multiple murder instead of terrorism, because the prosecutors might be afraid that if the accused is acquitted, he can seek payment of damages of P500,000 for every day that he has been detained.
The damages will be automatically charged against the appropriation of the police agency or the Anti-Terrorism Council.
But Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said it's up to the Department of Justice to decide the appropriate cases to file against the suspects. "The nature of the charges we leave that to the DOJ and our prosecutors," Remonde said at a press briefing in Malacañang.
Under the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2007 or the Human Security Act, the accused if convicted shall suffer the penalty of 40 years of imprisonment, without the benefit of parole. The senator said the justice department should finish the preliminary investigation in one month, file the complaint in court, and file a motion for the Supreme Court to order a change of venue to Manila “to avoid a miscarriage of justice," as provided by the Constitution.
The senator also called for the investigation of police personnel in the area, because they apparently failed to apply for a written order from the Court of Appeals to conduct surveillance of suspects, to intercept and record the communications of the suspects as allowed by law.
She also reminded the police or other law enforcement custodial unit in whose care and control the suspects have been placed, to keep a securely maintained official logbook.
Under the law, the logbook shall contain specifications about the detained person, his custodial arrest and detention, his physician, the state of his health and physical condition, the removal of the detained person from his cell for interrogation or for any other purpose, and other such details.
0 comments:
Post a Comment