{"id":32388,"date":"2014-11-22T11:38:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T03:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=32388"},"modified":"2014-11-22T11:42:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T03:42:57","slug":"five-years-after-maguindanao-massacre-still-no-justice-for-this-complex-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/22\/five-years-after-maguindanao-massacre-still-no-justice-for-this-complex-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Five years after Maguindanao massacre, still no justice for this \u2018complex case\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DOJ<\/a>
DOJ Sec. Leila De Lima. Photo courtesy of UNTV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In explaining the extreme delay in the trial of the suspects of the 5-year-old Maguindanao massacre case, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said: \u201cThey should understand how complex the case is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday before members of the international press, de Lima said that \u201cthe government is doing its best,\u201d and that the prosecution was not \u201cremiss\u201d in its task.<\/p>\n

The justice secretary pointed out that those unfamiliar with the legal process might think otherwise; that it was \u201ceasy\u201d for them to \u201cto find fault in those handling (the trial).\u201d<\/p>\n

She stressed, however, that \u201cif you regard the overview of the case and know how many witnesses were presented, (you\u2019d) know why it is taking a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Lima cited that the case is made all the more complex by the fact that there are 58 victims, 197 accused, 147 witnesses presented by the prosecution, and nearly 300 witnesses presented by the defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese factors (explain) why it\u2019s taking a long time,\u201d the justice secretary said. \u201cBut it should be understood that the wheels of justice are rolling. The judge and the prosecutors are doing their best,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

De Lima said that she is planning to meet with the kin of the massacre victims on Sunday \u2013 which marks the fifth anniversary of the brutal, politically motivated murder of 58 people on the morning of November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao \u2013 to assure them that the case has not been forgotten and that the administration is doing what it can to expedite the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In explaining the extreme delay in the trial of the suspects of the 5-year-old Maguindanao massacre case, Justice Secretary Leila …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[7208,3414,2407,8717],"class_list":["post-32388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-ampatuan","tag-doj","tag-leila-de-lima","tag-maguiondanao-massacre","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32388","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=32388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}