Obscene

It’s so obscene, I can’t find the right words to express my outrage over the gall of Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to clear Zaldy Ampatuan, suspended governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, and his uncle Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan Sr. of complicity in the most heinous crime this country has experienced and shocked even the a violence-weary world.

It’s also obscene hearing Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar describe as “an obscenity” the public’s accusations about Malacañang’s role in absolving the two Ampatuans of responsibility in the Nov 23 Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, 32 of them journalists.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is right. “.. the real and current obscenity in this country is the fact that the alleged president for whom Olivar speaks has become central to the major issues that beset this country, most particularly that of whether there will be a change in its putrid leadership rather than more of the same despite the 2010 elections.

“Why the country has reached this point is clear: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has demonstrated time and again that no method is too mean and no tactic too low for her to use in her drive to remain in power, and that includes committing the worst travesties against the very institutions—whether the police, the military or the justice system—that sustain State power.”

Agra’s exclusion of the two Ampatuans from the murder case further confirms the charge of Harry Roque of CenterLaw Philippines, counsel for families of 13 of the 32 journalists , that the massacre was an act of state and the Arroyo government should be held responsible for it.
In the case they filed before the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission (AICHR), the relatives said, “Clearly, all of those responsible for the carnage are agents of the Philippine State. Their acts in connection with the 23 November 2009 Maguindanao massacre are attributable under international law to the Republic of the Philippines.”

Now, Roque and his clients are justified to say, “”We have suspected all this time: that we cannot expect justice for the victims under the Arroyo administration.”

Roque said the families of the victims have another real worry – their personal safety. “They don’t need this aggravation but with two of the killers of their loved ones set free, the families have nowhere to turn to.”

Roque said the Arroyo administration played a no small role in allowing the Ampatuans to build their own private army and enrich themselves from the public coffers, in exchange for a sure source of votes it can rely on come election day.

Now, “The Arroyo administration is doing what all seasoned political operators are expected to do in situations like this – protect its own kind. To go against its own is to risk its very political survival.” he said.

Roque refuses to buy Agra’s justification for clearing the two Ampatuans which is alibi. “ Alibi though is the weakest of all possible defenses. Presence is not indispensible where a crime was committed as part of a conspiracy where the act of one is the act of all. Alabi cannot prevail against positive testimony of a witness that the Governor was part of the planning of the massacre. Surely, Sec. Agra could at least point to a stronger ground as basis for the dismissal of the multiple charges for murder against Gov. Ampatuan. While there may be other grounds for the possible dismissal: perhaps, political; it is not on the basis of law and evidence.”

Roque said, “This dismissal will not deter the 13 families of victims whom we represent to continue their search for justice. If not now, then sometime in the future. If not here, then before an international tribunal. One thing is clear though: the victims of the Maguindanao massacre cannot obtain justice under the regime of Mrs, Gloria Arroyo and her minions. “

He also said they are filing a disbarment case against Agra.

Agra’s act was so obscene even his prosecutors couldn’t take it. The National Prosecution Service, headed by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano has issued a resolution protesting Agra’s resolution.

The prosecutors said they are worried 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.”

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines hailed the prosecutors for their “honorable” stand.
NUJP said, “If anything, Agra’s scandalous resolution was not unexpected. What was unexpected, was the suddenness and the brazenness with which it was issued.”

The prosecutors noted that the resolution was issued Friday, just a day after Agra assured some of the victims’ families that he had not yet decided on Zaldy Ampatuan’s petition for review. It was also the very same day Zaldy and other members of the clan were being transferred from detention in Mindanao to Camp Bagong Diwa.

NUJP said, “This tends to confirm information that the resolution was apparently intended to prevent their transfer and that the very man sworn to uphold justice, was complicit to this attempt to subvert justice. And, of course, that Agra would never have committed such a brazen act without the knowledge of or, most probably, order from his ultimate superior, she who is so beholden to the Ampatuans, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”