The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Tuesday that it will continue to detain former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. despite a court decision which dismissed the rebellion charges filed against him and his sons last December.

Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman of the AFP Eastern Mindanao Command, said that the order of Judge Vivencio Baclig of the Quezon City RTC Branch 77 is for the rebellion charge filed against Andal Sr. He said that there is another court order for the continued detention of Andal Sr. issued last March 24.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City RTC Branch 221 ordered Andal Sr.’s continued detention in a March 24 order.

Cabangbang said that the court order was also furnished to the lawyers of the Ampatuans, thus they were surprised when a battery of Ampatuan lawyers and a court sheriff attempted to extract Andal Sr. from the Panacan Naval Hospital last Monday.

The detention order against Andal Sr. and all other suspects in the November 23 Maguindanao massacre suspects was in relation to the multiple murder charge and not rebellion.

“Thus even though there was an order from another court for the release of the respondents, it is not binding on all other charges the Ampatuans are facing,” the court said.

“Personally I think what they did yesterday was unnecessary attempt dahil alam naman nila na may ibang court order pa aside sa RTC Branch 77 ni Judge Vivencio Baclig. So what we did was issue a certificate that we cannot release Andal Sr. due to the order of Branch 221,” Cabangbang said.