Aquino ‘frustrated’ over slow pace of Maguindanao massacre trial

President Benigno Aquino: Frustrated. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–President Benigno Aquino admitted he was “frustrated” with the slow pace of the country’s judicial system as shown in the case of the Maguindanao massacre, which claimed the lives of 58 people, 32 of whom were journalists.

Aquino expressed his sympathies with the families of the victims, who had yet to get justice nearly five years after they were murdered allegedly upon the orders of then Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.

“I feel what the families are feeling. When will they get justice?” he told TV5 in Filipino.

But the President acknowledged the legal procedures that had to be followed, especially given the number of accused and complainants in the massacre case.

“So frustration? Medyo (Frustration? Somehow),” he said, referring to the generally slow pace by which cases are resolved under the Philippine justice system.

The Maguindanao massacre was no different, and it apparently did not help that private and government prosecutors have been at loggerheads over the handling of the case.

Private lawyers Nene Santos and Prima Quinsayas earlier went public and assailed government prosecutors over their plan to rest their case against some of the accused.

But another private lawyer, Harry Roque, backed the move of government prosecutors, saying it “allows the prosecution to rest its case against some of the 194 accused without waiting for the presentation of the ‘evidence-in-chief’ against all of the accused.”

“It was pursuant to this that the prosecutors partially rested its evidence against 28 of the accused,” he had said.

Government prosecutors were then accused to receiving bribes, an allegation they condemned “in the strongest terms.”