2 CA justices urged to inhibit from Ampatuan petition

MANILA, Philippines – Two judges of the Court of Appeals (CA) were asked to inhibit themselves from the deliberations of Zaldy Ampatuan, one of the accused in the Maguindanao Massacre, the Philippines' worst election-related violence where at least 57 people were killed.

Atty. Harry Roque, who represents some of the relatives of the victims, filed the motion to inhibit against Associate Justices Danton Bueser and Marlene Gonzales-Sison, both regular members of the CA’s 11th Division.

In their motion, the private respondents said they recently found out that the 2 judges have inhibited themselves from participating in the deliberations of an earlier case of Andal Ampatuan, Sr..

“The voluntary recusal of Associate Justices Bueser and Gonzales-Sison from the first case and their active participation in the present case is, at the very least, highly unusual, considering that both cases deal with the same incident, the same facts, and the same legal controversy,” they said.

Andal Sr. and his son are co-accused in the single deadliest attack on journalists on November 29, 2009 in Maguindanao.

“It is therefore a wonder for Private Respondents to see that the same Honorable Associate Justices – Bueser and Gonzales-Sison - have not done the same in this instant case that essentially involves the same facts and the same legal controversy, with the only difference that the Petitioner in this second case is the son of the Petitioner in the first case,” the respondents said.

They questioned why Bueser did not see the same impropriety that he found when he inhibited himself from being part of the panel hearing the petition of Andal Sr.

“What, for the good Justices, differentiates this case from the former, so that they chose to take part here and not there?” they asked.

They added, “But where the same Justices did a 180-degree turn in a case that is intimately related to the first and also lodged in the very same division – that is indeed a serious cause of concern for Private Respondents; after all, the second case is inextricably connected to the first case by an alleged conspiracy, and especially so where the Petitioners in both cases are father and son to each other."

In their prayer, they also proposed new panel of justices to resolve the petition. (report from abs-cbnNEWS.com)