Department of Justice(DOJ)

Resending to you our reply to your request for information dated 19 December 2016 for monitoring purposes. Note that this request for information was already acted upon within the 15 day working period. __________________________________________________________________________ FROM: ATTY. ERICKSON H. BALMES Undersecretary FOR: Ms. Carolyn Arguillas THRU: Ms. Irene Dulin Head, Communications Division SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO THE FOI QUERY ON THE STATUS REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF AMPATUAN MASSACRE CASES UNDER DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION DATE: 06 January 2016 Good day! This is to acknowledge receipt of your query through the eFOI portal dated 19 December 2016 requesting for the status/progress of the Ampatuan Massacre Cases. Of the one hundred ninety-seven (197) accused originally charged in the informations, the number is number is now down to one hundred ninety-two (192). Of the 192 accused, eighteen (18) are surnamed Ampatuan, including Andal Ampatuan, Sr., who died while in detention on July 17, 2015. Sixty-nine (69) are police officers, including PO2 Hernanie Decipulo, Jr., who allegedly jumped to his death from the roof top of his detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa. The three accused died while in detention. Of the 192 accused, one-hundred nine (109) are officially under detention, have been arraigned and are undergoing trial. Seventy (70) accused filed motions for bail. Sixty-six (66) of which have been resolved by the Court, where twenty-one (21) bail petitions have been denied and forty-six (46) bail petitions were granted. As for the evidence in chief, a total of one hundred eighty-eight (188) prosecution witnesses have been presented, including the private complainants and those witnesses who have been called to testify. As to your second inquiry, the case is still being heard every week on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Quezon City Jail Annex, BJMP, Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City for the reception of defense evidence for the accused. Motions are being heard every Mondays at the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. In relation to expediting the case, the President issued Administrative Order No. 01, s. 2016, Creating The Presidential Task Force on Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty, and Security of the Members of the Media. The mandate imposed upon the Task Force by Section 4 of the A.O. is to prioritize the investigation of unresolved cases and to monitor and report such cases, which includes the Ampatuan Massacre cases. We hope this sufficiently answers your questions. Thank you and best regards. ATTY. ERICKSON H. BALMES Undersecretary