Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his son, Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., Monday waived their right to appear for the resumption of preliminary investigation and other proceedings scheduled by the Department of Justice on the multiple murder charges filed against them in connection with the November 23 Maguindanao massacre.

The Ampatuans issued the waiver through a two-page manifestation and motion signed by lawyer Philip Sigfrid A. Fortun although it was lawyer Gregorio Narvasa who filed it before the DoJ investigating panel.

The massacre suspects said they prefer the safety and security of their respective detention facilities than attending the legal proceedings.

The motion came after Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said she would give Ampatuan Jr. another opportunity to answer the multiple murder charges against him.

“He can still submit a counter-affidavit,” Devanadera said, adding that this would be the third opportunity for Ampatuan Jr. to refute the charges.

During the first hearing for the preliminary investigation of the cases last December 18, Fortun had manifested that his client was waiving his right to answer the charges against him.

Devanadera said Ampatuan Jr. was first given a chance to answer the charges during inquest proceedings last November 26 at the General Santos City airport after he voluntarily surrendered and was placed under arrest.

Although the primary suspect in the carnage was already indicted in court last December 1 after the inquest, the DOJ still summoned him to Monday’s hearing for some 200 other respondents in the massacre, mostly policemen and government militiamen.

“During inquest, his lawyer already waived his right to submit counter-affidavit. But since we’re having the preliminary investigation anyway, he was given another chance. The hearing last Dec. 18 was his second,” Devanadera explained.

Monday’s proceedings at the DoJ building on P. Faura Street in Manila started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 12 noon.

Tighter security was implemented to avoid any untoward incident similar to the commotion that occurred last December 18, when irate journalists confronted Ampatuan Jr. and tried to physically harm him.

While the Ampatuans refused to answer the charges, 25 policemen from the Maguindanao Provincial Mobile Group personally filed their counter-affidavits before the prosecuting panel. The policemen are accused of complicity in the massacre which claimed the lives of at least 57 civilians, more than half of them journalists.

Other police respondents for their part insisted on waiting for the complete complaint affidavits against them before submitting their statements.

“We will not file our counter-affidavits if the complaint affidavits are incomplete. We will wait for the additional attachments before my clients submit theirs. We will not consider this preliminary investigation as the case in progress,” said a lawyer who is representing one of the respondent police officers.

The head of the prosecuting panel, Senior State Prosecutor Rosanne Balauag, stressed that the respondents were given ample time to produce their statements.

"Please exert effort in submitting all the counter-affidavits. Those are the only needed attachments," she told lawyers who insisted on waiting for the complete complaint affidavits against their clients.

Balauag said the complainants must also coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation with regard to the registration of the death certificates of the victims.

"We only have 22 certified true copies of the death certificates of the victims on hand. The other required details and certificates must be submitted to the panel,” Balauag said.

According to lawyer Nena Santos, legal counsel of the Mangudadatus whose family lost several members in the massacre, they have 55 certified true copies of the death certificates of the victims, and these shall be forwarded to the prosecuting panel.

As to the other remaining two death certificates, Santos said that they have yet to secure it from the regional office.