THE Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation on Monday recommended the filing of rebellion charges against five members of the powerful Ampatuan family including Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr. and his son Andal Ampatuan, Jr, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, and 19 members of the Maguindanao Civilian Volunteer Organization, the first to be charged with the offense after President Macapagal-Arroyo placed the province under martial law.

The rebellion charges are separate from murder cases being prepared against the Ampatuan’s over election-linked massacre of 57 persons in Maguindanao last November 23, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said.

But, according to lawyer Harry Roque the Proclamation 1959 imposing martial law in parts of Maguindanao has weakened the case of prosecutors since a lot of the evidence that could have been used in the murder case was obtained without warrants.

“As a lawyer of some of the victims in the massacre, our case has been weakened because a lot of the evidence gathered by authorities was taken without warrants, which we can no longer use. It’s what we call the fruit of the poisoned tree. If it is illegally obtained, we cannot use it in court,” Atty. Roque said in an interview.

Furthermore, Atty. Roque said “The case weakened because martial law only states that you can do warrantless arrests for the crime of rebellion. Unfortunately, a lot of the evidence was obtained without a search warrant because of the wrong thinking that they can do illegal search and seizure without a warrant.”

Many suspects that the rebellion case against Ampatuans is a part of Pres. Arroyo evil plan. It is the easy way out of the Ampatuans who were charged of multiple murder. In the article written by Mario J. Mallari he said: ‚ÄúDUE TO THE FILING OF REBELLION RAPS VS. THE AMPATUANS, THE MASSACRE WILL BE RELEGATED TO THE SIDELINES. THE END-RESULT WILL BE THE AMPATUANS WILL GO SCOT-FREE AS PLANNED BY GMA TO PROTECT HER LOYAL ALLIES WHO CHEATED FPJ OF RIGHTFUL VICTORY IN 2004. THIS PROVES THAT WE ARE A “DEMOCRACY” ONLY IN FORM BUT NOT IN SUBSTANCE.‚Äù

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