{"id":21177,"date":"2014-08-08T17:40:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T09:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=21177"},"modified":"2014-08-08T17:40:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T09:40:43","slug":"palace-hopeful-ampatuan-lawyers-withdrawal-wont-cause-delay-in-massacre-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/08\/palace-hopeful-ampatuan-lawyers-withdrawal-wont-cause-delay-in-massacre-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace hopeful Ampatuan lawyers\u2019 withdrawal won\u2019t cause delay in massacre trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10851\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10851\" style=\"width: 1077px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Abigail-Valte.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10851\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Abigail-Valte.png\" alt=\"Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. Screenshot of PCCO EDP press briefing video.\" width=\"1077\" height=\"681\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Abigail-Valte.png 1077w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Abigail-Valte-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Abigail-Valte-1024x647.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1077px) 100vw, 1077px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10851\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. Screenshot of PCCO EDP press briefing video.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA &#8212; Malacanang on Friday expressed hope that the withdrawal of the defense lawyers for a number of accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre from the case is not intended to delay the trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn any case, the DOJ (Department of Justice) panel of prosecutors are on guard against dilatory tactics,\u201d said Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Valte said that under the rules of procedure, if a lawyer is not retained by the accused, he or she will have to be defended by a public attorney after a certain period of time.<\/p>\n<p>The defense lawyers\u2019 withdrawal from the massacre case came amid accusations of bribery against some of the prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Secretary Leila already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe into the allegation.<\/p>\n<p>The bribery issue prompted calls, even joined by families of the victims, for an independent investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn any event, Atty. Nena Santos can file a case before the Office of the Ombudsman so that she can prove her alleged case with hard evidence,\u201d Valte further said.<\/p>\n<p>Santos is one of the private lawyers of families of 27 victims in the Maguindanao killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA &#8212; Malacanang on Friday expressed hope that the withdrawal of the defense lawyers for a number of accused in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,95],"tags":[7208,7209,4060],"class_list":["post-21177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ph","tag-ampatuan","tag-lawyers-quit","tag-maguindanao-massacre","mauthors-leslie-d-venzon","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}