A reliable source told GMA News Online that Fortun informed Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City about his decision through a “motion to withdraw as counsel” filed on Thursday.
The source said Fortun did not indicate in his motion his reason for ending his legal services for Ampatuan.
The source added however that while Fortun has withdrawn as Zaldy’s lawyer, he will remain as the legal counsel for the two other principal accused in the multiple murder case: Zaldy’s brother Andal Jr. and their father clan patriarch Andal Sr.
The Ampatuans are accused of plotting what would turn out to be the worst single-day election-related violence in Philippine history.
A total of 58 people, including 32 journalists, were allegedly killed on Nov. 23, 2009 by members of the Ampatuan clan and members of their private army.
The victims were part of a convoy that was supposed register then-Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu as a candidate for governorship of the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
In July 2011, the then one-and-a-half year-old trial took a significant turn when Zaldy – through interviews in several media outfits while in detention – broke his silence and said he was willing to testify in the massacre case.
His lawyers would later clarify that while their client wants to take the stand, he will not be applying to become a state witness.
Zaldy has repeatedly attempted to get his name off the list of accused – running both to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
All his efforts have however ended in vain, with the high court sealing his arraignment on November 14, 2012 when it denied the former governor’s final plea and ruled that it will no longer entertain any pleading regarding the matter.
Zaldy pleaded not guilty to the charges on Decemeber 12, 2012.
From the start, Zaldy has been giving an alibi in the massacre case, saying he was in Manila at the time of the killings and that he was in Davao City at the time the massacre was supposedly hatched. — JDS, GMA News