2nd of 5 parts
NAGA CITY (MindaNews / 12 Sept)—By 2014, the so-called Misuari Cases before the RTC of Zamboanga City were transferred to the RTC of Pasig City for security purposes and also for the convenience of a designated Department of Justice (DOJ) Panel of Special Prosecutors as well as the more than 200 accused detainees likewise transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. The three cases were docketed as Crim. Cases Nos. 152737 (war crime of hostage taking), 152738 (war crime of human shields use), and 152739 (rebellion), and lodged with RTC Pasig Branch 158 then under Judge Maria Rowena Modesto-San Pedro (who is now a Justice in the Court of Tax Appeals). By 2017, there were these several significant developments in the Misuari Cases under Judge San Pedro per documents she provided the author:
1. Her Resolution of 27 October 2016 suspending proceedings and enforcement of the warrants of arrest against accused Chairman Misuari, despite his presumable command responsibility, to allow him to attend peace talk sessions with the government due to his crucial role therein as top MNLF representative towards “the convergence of the MNLF and MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] peace tracks… consolidating all agreements with all Moro groups to finally achieve peace in Southern Philippines.”
2. Her Resolution of 29 May 2017 approving plea bargaining in the Rebellion case to the lesser offense of Sedition under Art. 139 of the RPC for 133 accused agreeable, leaving 93 to face trial for Rebellion. As for the two War Crimes charges, giving the Prosecution 15 days to amend them to Sedition for the same 133 accused, leaving 93 to face trial for War Crimes. The cases were then set for re-arraignment of the 133 accused covered by the Plea Bargaining Agreement and the Amended Informations for Sedition, as well as for Pre-Trial Conference for the 93 other accused.
The author has no certainty of what actually played out thereafter, other than that the Misuari Cases have been transferred to Branch 159, thus under a new Judge, but still of RTC Pasig. By now in 2023, more than six years later, it is reasonable to presume that Judgements of conviction for Sedition in all three Misuari Cases were rendered against the above-said 133 accused who no longer appealed, served out their given sentences of not more than six years and thus were thereupon released. The trial for all three original charges of War Crimes and Rebellion against the above-said 93 other accused has presumably proceeded but the author has no information on whatever further developments of this trial. He is however reliably informed that the proceedings in the same three original cases against accused Chairman Misuari himself only have continued to be suspended by extension after extension in the afore-said interest of the Mindanao peace process.
The convictions, if indeed, for Sedition in all three Misuari Cases against the above-said 133 accused, presumably low-ranking MNLF fighters or foot-soldiers, may be seen as a partial, even small, measure of justice. Judge San Pedro in her 27 October 2017 Resolution explained well the rationale for plea-bargaining from Rebellion to the lesser offense of Sedition and for the amendments of the Informations (charges) of War Crimes to Sedition. In her explanation, she cited, among others, the increasing use of Plea Bargaining Agreements in several international criminal tribunals in cases “even in the most serious of crimes” like genocide. Such arrangements tend to be more acceptable when the accused are “small fry” not so much when they are “big fish.” It is not yet clear to the author whether any of the above-said 93 other accused who were supposed to go to trial for all three original charges of War Crimes and Rebellion are “big fish.”
The Informations (charges) in all three Misuari Cases indicate only the first four named accused – Chairman Misuari, Ustadz Malik, Assamin Hussin, and Bas Arki – among the more than 200 accused to be the “leaders” but who are “at large,” i.e., not yet arrested nor surrendered, thus not yet in the custody of the law. But Chairman Misuari, with the filing of his Motion to Suspend Proceedings and Enforcements of Warrants of Arrest starting October 2016, is deemed to have voluntarily submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the Court. In fact, he undertook to surrender his person to the Court’s jurisdiction following termination of the peace talks or at any time that the suspension is lifted. Judge San Pedro was clear: “At the same time, the relief being granted being an exceptional measure, safeguards must be put in place to ensure the eventual prosecution of Misuari in the instant cases.”
But will this ever come to pass? At the rate things are going, Misuari has become practically “Untouchable” as long as he is deemed by the peace policy-decision makers as indispensable to the Mindanao peace process with a unified MNLF-MILF for the Bangsamoro. When might peace give way to justice here? – even as Judge San Pedro adopted the view that “It is no longer a question of whether to pursue justice or peace, but instead a challenge of when and how to pursue both.” What happens if instead it is the 84-year-old Misuari who comes to pass? (or is this the government’s game plan?) Would that not be justice not only delayed and denied but also cheated by the MNLF leader with command responsibility? And how about when it comes to the second leader accused, the MNLF ground commander Ustadz Malik who, by all indications, was killed in the later days of the Zamboanga Siege? To many Zamboangueños, that was justice served. But is that the desired norm or preferred mode for serving justice in matters of this sort? Ought we not be better than this?
Even if accused Chairman Misuari is eventually (in the remote event) somehow convicted for Rebellion and War Crimes, this measure of criminal justice may not be enough in rendering commensurate justice to the Zamboangueño victims of the Zamboanga Siege. And how about, per reports of the Commission on Human Rights Region 9 Quick Reaction Team (CHR9-QRT), government security forces who apparently also committed war crimes aside from human rights abuses in the maltreatment of detainees and even evacuees during that Siege? Was it really only the MNLF who were responsible for the burning of the houses in “Ground Zero”? Was it really only the MNLF who fired at civilians? Some hostages when later interviewed said that military snipers fired at them without distinction whether they were hostages or MNLF fighters, resulting in several hostage deaths. Looting was also witnessed to have been committed both by MNLF fighters and by Army troopers. Why were only the MNLF but not the government security forces charged with War Crimes cases? Has the law R.A. 9851 been selectively applied or weaponized only against rebels, never soldiers (incidentally, a continuing trend)?
(SOLIMAN M. SANTOS JR. is a retired RTC Judge of Naga City, Camarines Sur, serving in the judiciary there from 2010 to 2022. He has an A.B. in History cum laude from U.P. in 1975, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nueva Caceres (UNC) in Naga City in 1982, and a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne in 2000. He is a long-time human rights and international humanitarian lawyer; legislative consultant and legal scholar; peace advocate, researcher and writer; and author of a number of books, including on the Moro and Communist fronts of war and peace. Among his authored books are The Moro Islamic Challenge: Constitutional Rethinking for the Mindanao Peace Process published by UP Press in 2001; Judicial Activist: The Work of a Judge in the RTC of Naga City published by Central Books in 2023; and his latest, Tigaon 1969: Untold Stories of the CPP-NPA, KM and SDK published by Ateneo Press in 2023.)