InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - The civil case filed by the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been raffled off to the sala of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 104 Judge Catherine Manodon.
The first hearing on the case will be on December 9 wherein the court will tackle the 15 plaintiffs' appeal to allow them to litigate as indigents and thus exempt them from filing fees.
A multi-million peso suit was filed on November 22 against Arroyo, current Pampanga representative, who is now under hospital arrest after she was charged of committing the non-bailable offense of electoral sabotage.
The suit seeks to hold Arroyo accountable for allegedly aiding the Ampatuan clan and its private armies, and supposedly therefore contributing to the Ampatuan massacre two years ago.
The complainants are asking that they be indemnified in the amount of P500,000 each in moral damages for the loss of their relatives, and P500,000 in exemplary damages.
The complainants say the former president, despite knowledge of the illegal activities of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao, did not do anything to stop them.
