MANILA, Philippines - The government has prevented the Ampatuan clan from regaining control of its assets earlier ordered frozen by the Court of Appeals (CA) in pursuit of questioned bank accounts and properties of the family tagged in the massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009.

The six-month freeze order of the CA on the 597 bank accounts, 142 firearms, 132 motor vehicles and 113 houses and lots in the names of 27 members of the Ampatuan clan and their associates lapsed last Friday.

But the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), through the Office of the Solicitor General, was able to immediately secure a provisional asset protection order (PAPO) from the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the afternoon of the same day, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed yesterday.

“Per SolGen (Joel Cadiz), such PAPO was issued Friday afternoon by Manila RTC,” she said in a text message.

The order was issued through a petition for civil forfeiture with a prayer for a new freeze order filed by the AMLC with the RTC.

“That’s why upon being informed of the Ampatuan camp’s attempt yesterday (Saturday) to withdraw from Cotabato bank accounts, I immediately sought (Interior and Local Government) Secretary Jesse Robredo’s help to deploy PNP (Philippine National Police) personnel to secure the bank,” the Justice secretary said.

De Lima said the PAPO has the same effect as that of a freeze order, which means the covered assets of the Ampatuans would be kept untouched.

De Lima said the government has aggressively acted for the freezing of the assets which the Ampatuans may have used in committing fraud, such as amassing up to P1 billion in ill-gotten wealth.

Also, she reiterated that the return of their bank accounts, firearms and other resources would give the Ampatuans an advantage over government prosecutors in their ongoing trial for the Maguindanao massacre case.

But the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) lamented the delay in the actions of the government.

They questioned why the AMLC’s petition for a new freeze order was filed with the trial court only last Dec. 1, or a day before the freeze order of the CA lapsed.

“We view with great alarm the unwarranted delay and apparent lack of attention and negligence that the AMLC and the OSG had accorded this case. A week ahead of expiry of the appellate court’s freeze order, we have called government attention to this grave matter - the possibility that the Ampatuans could take such delay as a chance to retake control of their enormous unexplained wealth to put pressure to bear on their trial for the Maguindanao massacre of Nov. 23, 2009, which claimed the lives of 58 persons, including 32 media workers,” the media watchdogs said in a joint statement.

“The FFFJ and NUJP urge all concerned government agencies, but especially AMLC, to take whatever steps are necessary to correct this anomaly,” they appealed.

The CA issued the freeze order on the multibillion-peso assets and hundreds of bank accounts of the Ampatuans only last May, or 19 months after the massacre, during the investigation of which the existence of these billions and other assets was discovered.

Members of the Ampatuan clan led by patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan questioned the freeze order, but the appellate court’s former special second division had junked their bids.

The AMLC and OSG, however, no longer applied for an extension of the freeze order and instead made a last-minute petition with the RTC.