A day after issuing an order to intensify efforts to locate and arrest the 91 remaining suspects in the gruesome Maguindanao Massacre that saw 57 casualties including 32 journalists, the very prime suspects in the multiple murder case asked President Aquino to junk the government prosecutors’ finding of sufficient evidence warranting the filing of a non-bailable case against them.
In a letter addressed to the President, the very suspects believed to have hatched and implemented a plot seen as the worst single incident in the country, expressed disappointment over the manner in which the government prosecutors were pinning them down.
As it is, the prime suspects, former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, his father Andal Sr. and brother Mayor Andal Jr., apparently wanted the President to exercise presidential powers and overturn the findings of the Department of Justice-designated prosecutors, whom they described as too eager to see them suffer.
No less than presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda confirmed the existence of the supposed letter from the Maguindanao Massacre prime suspects.
Asked for categorical developments on the Ampatuan’s plea to the President, Lacierda hinted that the matter had been referred to the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs tasking them to validate and submit to the President recommendations deemed for the best interest of the country.
Earlier, President Aquino reminded the Philippine National Police (PNP) of a standing presidential directive for the law-enforcement agency to locate and arrest all 101 remaining suspects even before the worst single slaughter that earned global condemnation, turned three years old in November.
In a press briefing heard over government station dzRB, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said the President was still awaiting reports from the PNP.
Valte issued the reminder on orders of the President whom she said wanted to hear some positive developments on the case.
Earlier, PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. admitted that the PNP was having a hard time locating the remaining Maguindanao Massacre suspects citing the wide area where suspects were believed to be seeking refuge, the nature of its terrain and the presence extremist armed groups.
Cerbo also lamented that the suspects seemed to be enjoying the protection of their clans and communities.
To date, the PNP has arrested 96 of the 197 accused in the Maguindanao massacre. The latest to be apprehended is the grandson of Andal Ampatuan Sr., Ipeh Ampatuan, who was arrested in March 2012 when an explosion destroyed the boat he was supposedly taking to a remote marshland near the southern city of Cotabato. Police were said to have been unaware that one of those who were wounded in the blast was Ipeh.