The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld  the government’s findings to indict  former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan for his involvement in the Maguindanao massacre  four years ago.
In a one-page resolution, the SC en banc denied Ampatuan’s petition which sought the reversal of the Nov. 8, 2009 resolution issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) which in turn affirmed with finality its decision to put the former ARMM governor on trial.
“After review of the records, the Court resolves to deny the petition for failure to show that the Court of Appeals committed any reversible error in affirming the May 5, 2010 resolution of the Department of Justice (DoJ) that ordered the reinstatement of the criminal information for murder... against petitioner Datu Zaldy Puti Ampatuan,” the SC said.
The government’s handling of the case’s prosecution has  been marked with outrage of late following the recent murders of key witnesses in the incident which had resulted in the single highest number of deaths of journalists at work.
More than 30 newsmen were murdered along with 20 others who were waylaid  while on their way to file a local candidate’s documents.
Ampatuan’s legal counsels took the case to the SC after the CA held that the DoJ committed no grave abuse of discretion in finding probable cause to warrant the filing in court of an information for multiple murder against Ampatuan.
The CA did not give credence to Ampatuan’s claim that the DoJ grossly violated his constitutionally guaranteed right to due process when it issued a resolution on May 5, 2010 reversing its April 16 resolution, 2010 based on a new evidence which was not presented during the preliminary investigation.
The DoJ’s May 5 resolution, according to the CA, was in accordance “with the facts, the law and prevailing jurisprudence on the matter at hand.”
In reversing the order of the investigating prosecutors and excluding Zaldy Ampatuan from the multiple murder charges, former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra noted that the latter was able to sufficiently establish that he was in Davao City from Nov. 20, 2009 up to the early morning of Nov. 23, 2009 when he flew to Manila and on the following day from Manila to Cotabato, contrary to the testimony of the NBI witness Kenny Dalandag.
Agra, however, abandoned the resolution later.
The SC found no grave abuse of discretion on the part of Agra in issuing its May 5, 2010 resolution which reversed and set aside his April 16 resolution.
Ampatuan, in his petition, noted that in issuing the May resolution, Agra accepted and gave credence to the affidavit of new witness Abdul Talusan which was submitted by private prosecution lawyer Nena Santos in her supplemental motion for reconsideration.
Ampatuan stressed that Agra violated his constitutionally guaranteed right to due process when he gave weight to Talusan’s testimony without affording him an opportunity to present counter-evidence.  
Talusan, in his affidavit, corroborated the testimony of another prosecution witness, Kenny Dalandag, stating that the petitioner participated in the meeting held at the house of his father, former Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. where the massacre was planned.
Ampatuan insisted that the former justice secretary failed to give him an opportunity to submit countervailing evidence to refute Talusan’s affidavit,  much more inform him of the existence of the same.