CA affirms RTC order granting bail to Ampatuan son in Maguindanao massacre case

February 15, 2017

The Court of Appeals upheld the order of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court allowing the son of former Maguindanao governor and clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. to be released from jail after posting bail.

In a 10-page decision issued on January 30, the CA’s Sixteenth Division through Associate Justice Marie Christine Azcarraga-Jacob denied the appeal filed by government prosecutors seeking to reverse the order by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City RTC, Branch 221, granting bail on January 9, 2015 to Sajid Islam Ampatuan, one of the accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

The appeals court said Solis did not commit grave abuse of discretion in granting bail.

“In the instant case, the Court finds public respondent did not act in a whimsical, arbitrary and capricious manner when she granted private respondent’s motion for bail,” the CA decision said.

Sajid Islam was released from jail in March 2015 after posting P200,000 per murder count or a total of P11.6 million for 58 counts of murder filed before the court. DMS