The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Supreme Court (SC) has given the side of Andal Ampatuan Jr. ten days to comment on the petitions to have the Maguindanao Massacre trial aired live.

Ampatuan is the primary suspect in the ongoing investigation into the brutal elections-related slaying of 57 people last year.

In an order dated November 23, but only released to the media on Sunday, the high court gave respondents up to December 3 to comment on the petitions filed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), television networks ABS-CBN and GMA-7, and the National Press Club (NPC) and Alyansa ng mga Filipinong Mamamahayag (Afima), asking the high court to air the controversial trial live on TV and radio.

The petitions questioned two earlier SC rulings denying the public airing of trials due to the right of the accused to a fair trial without any undue prejudice from the public. These rulings were made during former President Corazon Aquino's1991 libel case against journalist Louie Beltran, and the 2001 plunder trial of former President Joseph Estrada at the Sandiganbayan.

According to the petitions however, the ban violates the freedom of the press, as well as the public’s right to information, right to assembly and to petition the government for redress of grievances, and right of free access to courts and freedom of association.

The NPC added that should the request be denied, it would ask the SC to allow live audio and video feeds to be shown on a widescreen monitor outside the makeshift courtroom at Camp Bagong Diwa.

Together with a consolidated version of all the petitions was the letter-request submitted by President Noynoy Aquino to Chief Justice Renato Corona, saying that  the trial must be conducted “in full public view" to show that “justice can and will be dispensed without fear or favor and in the full light of day.”

“We need to make people aware of, and convinced that, justice is being done and her interest served,” said Aquino in the letter. “This can be done by making the trial of important and sensational cases such as the Maguindanao Massacre case, public.”

According to Court Administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, the SC needs more time to study the petitions and decide whether or not to lift the bans on airing court trials live.