I love MDS!

An excerpt only [Transcript of Sen. Santiago's interview after filing her certificate of candidacy with the Comelec - 27 November 2009]

The act of massacre is in effect steeping with impunity in the face of the rule of law. Can you imagine that in the 21st Century, someone has the mentality to prepare well in advance the murder of at least 57 people and the destruction of several vehicles and expects to get away with impunity without any criminal liability? This is Neanderthal brutality. We could accept it if it happened among cave people or among cavemen. But we cannot accept that it has happened in the 21st century.

In case of doubt, because of the beastly manner in which the clan has perpetuated, I think that the better choice should be between two crimes, the higher crime, or the bigger crime should be written in the complaint. Anyway, there’s nothing binding about tagging it as a case of multiple murders of war because the prosecution is always free to amend the complaint even without authority by the judge before the accused enter his plea.

And also, I wish to emphasize that not only the principal suspect should be treated as principals in the crime of terrorism but also the members of the police and perhaps of the military. Under the Anti-Terrorism Act or the Human Security Act of 2007, they should already have conducted surveillance because even the civilians knew of the impending catastrophic disaster. They should have followed the law and made a written application to a certain division of the Court of Appeals to be given authority to set aside the anti-wiretapping law. They could have conducted surveillance including tapping the wires of the suspects and they could have prevented this massacre. They actually deferred to do so. Everybody knew about it except perhaps these policemen. If I were a doctor, I would charge them with being blind, deaf, and mute, but you see they are not, so they should be immediately investigated for their own criminal liability and not just preventive suspension—for what?! the people are dead!—for failing to comply with their duties under law, for failing to provide surveillance since it was already widespread knowledge in the entire province that people were going to die, and in fact, that they were going to the first backhoe massacre in the history of the world. They should have immediately taken the complaint to the Court of Appeals and simply file a written application.

That is a suspicion that cannot be avoided. As a former RTC judge, I have to remind myself and the public that we must keep an open mind because everyone enjoys a presumption of innocence. But since there were already intimations particularly from the Ampatuan clan that they were going to do something drastic not only with the safety but also with the lives of their political opponents, it was incumbent upon the police and the military to have stopped this impending catastrophe. If they had only done their job I think those people, if it were not a crime, should be made to stand and watch as a backhoe digs a grave for all these military.