By IANS/AKI,
Manila : Eleven people including nine police officers Wednesday pleaded not guilty to 57 counts of murder in the Philippines’ worst political massacre in Muslim-majority Maguindanao province in November last year.
Four police officers were not arraigned after lodging motions to drop the charges. But the judge ordered them to enter pleas next week in relation to the massacre.
Fifty-seven people, including 30 journalists, were killed when more than 100 armed men attacked their convoy as it made its way to an election office to witness the filing of nomination papers for a local election.
The government has ordered that charges be dropped against two members of the Ampatuan family, a powerful political clan allied to the government of president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Meanwhile, Harry Roque, a lawyer for some of the families of massacre victims, asked the court to defer the hearings until a new administration takes over in July.
“The decision dropping murder charges against them was so sly and done on a weekend when no one was looking,” Roque said after the hearing.
“It is so brazen, and shows that justice will not be reached in this administration.”