THE Supreme Court has given the Sandiganbayan the go-ahead to act on the motion filed by the Office of the Ombudsman to withdraw the graft and usurpation of authority cases filed against President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and former police officials over the January 2015 Mamasapano clash that led to the death of more than 60 people, including 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF).
This, after the High Tribunal lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued in February 2018 to halt the proceedings of Sandiganbayan based on the petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).
The TRO issued by the Court effectively, postponed the arraignment of Aquino , former PNP Chief Alan Purisima and former SAF Chief Getulio Napeñas for a downgraded offense of usurpation of authority and graft.
The OSG’s petition also sought to compel the Office of the Ombudsman to reverse its resolution dismissing the 44 counts of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide charges the petitioners had filed against Aquino and his coaccused before it.
The OSG insisted that the liability of the respondents over the Mamasapano carnage is grounded on the faulty planning and execution of Oplan Exodus, which aimed at neutralizing Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Abdhir, alias Marwan, and Muslim extremist Basit Usman.
It can be recalled that Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires filed last June a motion with the Sandiganbayan to withdraw the graft and usurpation of authority filed against the respondents following a review of the resolution issued by his predecessor, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Martires held that following his review of the resolution, he found no sufficient ground and evidence to proceed with the usurpation of authority and graft cases.
However, Martires stressed that the dismissal of the graft and usurpation of authority charges is “without prejudice to the filing of appropriate charges against accused after the conduct of preliminary investigation.”
The Sandiganbayan has not acted on Martires’s motion due to the TRO issued by the Court in 2018.
As a consequence of the lifting of the TRO, the Sandiganbayan may now resolve Matires’s motion.
The Sandiganbayan has deferred action on Martires’s motion because of the TRO issued by the SC in 2018.
“Upon verification with the Chief Justice [Lucas Bersamin], I would like to confirm that the Supreme Court has lifted the TRO on the Mamasapano trial before the Sandiganbayan,” SC spokesman, lawyer Brian Keith Hosaka told reporters.
Aside from Aquino, Napeñas and Purisima, 88 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s splinter group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters are also facing charges of direct assault with murder in connection with the incident.
On January 25, 2015, the slain police commandos were deployed to Mamasapano to capture the said terrorists.
Marwan was killed in the process but the slaying of the wanted terrorist resulted in a fierce encounter between SAF operatives and Muslim rebels that surrounded the area.
The OSG stressed that Aquino has full knowledge of the Oplan Exodus and his subsequent approval of the operation made him liable for negligence, “which was the direct proximate cause in the massacre of SAF 44.”
Image credits: Aerous