Petition to reverse Agra decision, demand for Agra’s resignation

Petition to reverse Agra decision, demand for Agra’s resignation

To: PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT

We condemn Justice Secretary Alberto Agra’s decision to absolve Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and Akmad Ampatuan of multiple murder charges.

We demand the reinstatement of Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan in the ranks of massacre suspects. We also demand Secretary Agra’s resignation or dismissal from the Justice Department.

Agra has clearly shown that his talent is for adding to the injustice that took the lives of 58 people, including 32 journalists on Nov. 23, 2009. He ran roughshod over the Justice Department’s own prosecutors. He did not consult them; they had to learn the news from media.

The Court had already approved the case filed by government prosecutors and private lawyers; thus, Mr. Agra’s decision was uncalled for.

With the Ampatuan clan’s record of being operators of electoral fraud on behalf of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies, fears of massive fraud in the coming May elections are not unjustified.

But the most important reason for the repeal of the Agra decision is simply this: It adds insult to the grievous crime that haunts the families of the 58 victims of the Ampatuan massacre.

Please continue to demand justice for the 58, including 32 journalists, who were brutally murdered in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Philippines on November 23, 2009. Two massacre suspects have already been absolved by the present Secretary of no less than the Department of Justice of the Philippines.

To sign the petition, please go to: http://www.petitiononline.com/AGRA2010/petition.html