BAGUIO CITY — Justice Secretary Alberto Agra bared Tuesday the filing of a motion for reconsideration (MR) seeking to reverse the decision of a Quezon City regional trial court (RTC), dismissing the rebellion charges against some members of former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. clan and others. This developed as Agra also revealed that the DoJ will file additional charge of illegal possession of firearms against the respondents of the rebellion charges.

Agra said that the DoJ will pursue rebellion charges against the Ampatuans after a QC RTC dismissed the rebellion charges against the 24 accused, including the seven detained accused. They were earlier detained by virtue of warrants of arrest for rebellion.

Apart from Ampatuan Sr., also detained were Zaldy Ampatuan, Akmad Ampatuan Sr., Sajid Ampatuan, Anwar Ampatuan, Takpan Dilon, and Esmael Canapia. “We are filing the MR either today (Tuesday) or Wednesday at the sala of Judge Vivencio Baclig, of the Quezon City RTC Branch 77. Over the holidays, our state prosecutors finalized the MR,” he said.

He said in the event that the trial court judge denies the DoJ’s MR, they would elevate the case to the Court of Appeals (CA) by filing a certiorari for judicial determination of a probable cause. “We are going over the same pieces of evidence. The court found no probable cause but we will convince the court that there was existence of probable cause. The court appreciates the pieces of evidence differently from ours (DoJ),” said Agra.