Key suspect in Southern Philippines massacre surrenders

Key suspect in Southern Philippines massacre surrenders
Abigail Kwok
With reports from by Tetch Torres
Philippine Daily Inquirer
26-11-2009

A key suspect in the gruesome killings in Maguindanao province and member of a powerful clan in Mindanao has surrendered to authorities and would be flown to Manila.

Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., son of Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., has been identified as having masterminded the massacre last November 23 that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, including 18 journalists who were supposed to cover the filing of candidacy for governor of the Ampatuans’ political rival, Buluan town mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.

Ampatuan Jr., accompanied by Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on Mindanao, arrived in General Santos at 12:25pm Thursday (November 26) and was handed over to Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera who would bring the local official to Manila.

Devanadera, together with chief state Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, will perform the inquest at the General Santos City airport.

If proven guilty in court, Ampatuan will be jailed for life without possibility of parole.

Ampatuan Jr. arrived in Shariff Aguak at 11:20am Thursday, accompanied by his brother and ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, who turned him over to Dureza.

Ampatuan Jr and Dureza hugged each other before boarding a helicopter that took them to General Santos City.

In Manila, Local Government Secretary Ronaldo four policemen will also be flown to Manila from Cotabato City to stand as accused in the killings, Puno said.

Puno identified these policemen as Senior Superintendent Abusana Maguid, the acting provincial director of Maguindanao police; Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay, chief of police of Shariff Aguak; Senior Police Officer 2 Baccal, and Inspector Judingan.

Puno also announced that the National Police Commission passed a resolution removing supervisory powers of the local government in Mindanao over police personnel in the area.

All members of the Ampatuan police are also the subject of investigation.
Earlier in the day, Philippine National Police Chief Jesus Verzosa said on radio that several gunmen were arrested.

He identified the suspects as militiamen under the control of Ampatuan Jr.

The massacre occurred after about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a six-vehicle convoy of aides and relatives of Mangudadatu.

They were shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name.

Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far, and police are still searching for more potential victims.

Ampatuan Sr. had been grooming his son, currently a local mayor, to take over as governor of Maguindanao.

The victims' relatives alleged the Ampatuans organised the murders so that Mangudadatu would not run for that post.

Thursday's actions by the police were the first arrests in relation to the massacre.

asianewsnet.net

I saw this yesterday and was appalled... More of those 'Religion of Peace' folks on Mindinao expressing their desire for freedom to the Philippine government....

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Originally Posted by Muadib

I saw this yesterday and was appalled... More of those 'Religion of Peace' folks on Mindinao expressing their desire for freedom to the Philippine government....

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This Ampatuan family are vote buyers and power brokers in the area, they allegedly rigged the election that got Gloria Arroya re-elected last time.
They obviously seem to operate with total impunity due to the favours owed to them in delivering huge blocs of votes to winning contestants.
Seems Ms Arroyo is under worldwide scrutiny to do something about this last episode though.
BBC News - Philippine clan leader held over poll-related massacre

"Largest single massacre of journalist ever" according to the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8377875.stm

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Originally Posted by Mid

If proven guilty in court, Ampatuan will be jailed for life without possibility of parole.

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Good, scumbag. lets hope he gets convicted..a hundred people..just so someone wouldn't run for office!!!!! Asians...they love the power...

Greed knows no bounds.

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Originally Posted by kmart

Ms Arroyo

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Originally Posted by kmart

worldwide scrutiny

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Like she gives a fooooooooook, corrupt bitch.

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Seems Ms Arroyo is under worldwide scrutiny to do something about this last episode though.

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indeed , what will be interesting

UN man shot dead near Philippine massacre: police
(AFP) – 4 hours ago

COTABATO, Philippines — A local UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) worker was shot dead in a lawless part of the southern Philippines close to where a political massacre occurred this week, police said Friday.

An unidentified gunman shot Nestor Bulahan at a bus terminal in Parang town, Maguindanao province, on Thursday morning, regional police spokesman Superintendent Sigfried Ramos told AFP.

Bulahan died in hospital a short time later, he added.

Parang is 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Ampatuan, a town where gunmen allegedly under the orders of a local politician abducted and killed at least 57 people on Monday.

"We do not know the motive yet," Ramos said.

However it occurred after President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao and nearby Cotabato city under a state of emergency following the massacre.

Authorities had insisted emergency rule, plus an influx of thousands of troops, had brought the area under control.

UNICEF released a short statement on Friday confirming an employee had been shot but giving few details other than that the incident was not believed to be linked to his work.

"A UNICEF staff member was shot yesterday. We cannot confirm his identity or current state," UNICEF spokeswoman in the Philippines Angela Travis said in the statement.

"He was not on official duty when the incident happened and the incident is believed to be personal."

Ramos said Bulahan was shot in his stomach while riding a tricycle to meet a friend.

google.com

161 Suspects in Philippines Massacre Sought
TERESA CEROJANO / AP WRITER
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police on Wednesday named 161 suspects in the massacre of 57 people last month, including government militiamen led by members of a powerful clan facing murder and rebellion charges.

Witnesses have identified Andal Ampatuan Jr., a scion of the clan, leading the group of militiamen who stopped his rival's convoy that included 30 journalists and their staff on Nov. 23 in the southern province of Maguindanao, national police chief Jesus Verzosa told reporters.

He said witnesses told investigators Ampatuan himself shot some of the victims in Ampatuan township — named after his family that has ruled the impoverished province unopposed for years. The bodies troops found hours later bore bullet wounds in the mouth and chest fired from close range, Verzosa said.

Police also said the bodies of some of the 21 women were mutilated, including their sexual organs. Authorities earlier said at least five women may have been raped.

Police said the militiamen, all but two at large, were identified by witnesses Tuesday. Their names will be submitted to prosecutors to be included in the charge sheet and court warrants of arrest.

The mug shots of about 100 newly identified suspects were displayed at the national police headquarters in Manila. Of 161 suspects identified by authorities, 100 are militiamen and the remainder are members of the Ampatuan clan or are police, army and local officials working for the Ampatuans. About 30 of them have been arrested.

Ampatuan turned himself in three days after the Nov. 23 killings and denied involvement. His father, the family patriarch, and other relatives have been arrested on separate charges of rebellion.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week declared martial law in Maguindanao, allowing government forces to arrest other members of the clan without waiting for court warrants and order some 2,400 loyalists to surrender their weapons.

Security forces have recovered dozens of weapons and about half a million ammunition rounds in and near properties of the clan. Officers and soldiers returned to the warehouse they raided earlier and found more ammunition hidden in the concrete wall, said military spokesman Lt-Col Michael Samson.

Air force planes and helicopters dropped thousands of leaflets urging the Ampatuan followers to give up or face an assault.

"We have to resolve this case peacefully," Verzosa said. "We are urging them to surrender and then the normal processes of the law and prosecution should be held."

The head of the independent Commission on Human Rights, Leila de Lima, said her agency would also investigate allegations contained in a letter from anonymous citizens blaming the Ampatuans for at least 200 other killings in the area in the past. De Lima cautioned that the allegations had not been validated and did not provide details.

She said her office had asked the elder Ampatuan to comment on the allegations but he never responded.

Aside from murder charges, prosecutors also drew up a case of rebellion against the Ampatuans and their supporters for allegedly fomenting armed resistance to prevent their arrests — a justification for the martial law proclamation.

Some lawmakers and legal scholars worried that the rebellion charges, a political rather than a criminal offense, might dilute the murder case. Those convicted of rebellion are eligible for amnesty.

Human rights lawyers, a former Senate president and three other groups asked the Supreme Court to declare the martial law proclamation unconstitutional, arguing the law and order breakdown in Maguindanao did not amount to a rebellion.

The court ordered the government to comment on the petition by Monday. It also granted the government's request to transfer the trial from Maguindanao to Manila, citing concern for the security of witnesses.

Arroyo's proclamation is the first use of military rule in the Philippines since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared it nationwide more than 30 years ago.

Congress will convene later Wednesday for a marathon all-night session to discuss the measure and is expected to approve it.

Arroyo's allies dominate the lower house.Associated Press writers Jim Gomez, Oliver Teves and Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.

Muslim Rebels to Ink Truce Next Year
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KUALA LUMPUR — The Philippine government will aim to seal a peace pact with Muslim separatist rebels to end a decades-long rebellion in the south by March or early April, a Malaysian official said Wednesday.

Othman Abdul Razak, who is facilitating the peace talks, said the two sides also agreed to revive an international monitoring team of cease-fire observers and expand the panel's scope to include civilian protection.

The two sides Monday resumed peace talks at a hotel in Malaysia's largest city. Talks had collapsed 16 months ago.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been fighting for Muslim self-rule for decades in Mindanao, the southern homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines.

Negotiators from both sides began a two-day round of Malaysian-brokered talks Tuesday at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's main city.

Negotiations with the rebels fell apart in August last year when the Philippine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a preliminary accord on an expanded Muslim autonomous region.

A rampage by three rebel commanders upset by the stalled deal sparked months of clashes. The fighting — which killed hundreds and displaced as many as 750,000 people — eased in July, and both sides agreed in September to resume talks.

irrawaddy.org

Trial on massacre in southern Philippines starts
วันพุธ ที่ 01 ก.ย. 2553

MANILA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Nine months after the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao in southern Philippines, the trial of the alleged mastermind begun on Wednesday.

Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes opened the trial of the November 2009 massacre, with nearly 200 accused and over 500 witnesses to be attending.

The court hearing on Wednesday was only for the complaint filed by government prosecutors for Victor Nunez of UNTV against Andal Ampatuan Jr., the principal accused.

The trial for the 56 others could not yet proceed due to the pending petition for bail filed by lawyer Sigfrid Fortun for Ampatuan, GMAnews.TV quoted Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon as saying.

At least 57 people were killed in the stunning massacre of journalists, civilians and relatives of politicians in the volatile southern Philippines in November last year. The victims were abducted as they were travelling to nominate an opposition candidate for governor in 2010 elections.

mcot.net

'Everybody laughed, saying it's OK for everybody to be killed':
8th September 2010

Philippine massacre of 57 was planned over dinner, according to plotters' house servant

A house servant of the politically powerful clan accused in last year's massacre of 57 people told a Philippine court today that the family members plotted the killings of rivals and journalists over dinner six days before the ambush.

The witness, Lakmudin Saliao, took the stand on the first day of trial nearly 10 months after the November 23 massacre in southern Maguindanao province exposed the shocking violence of Philippine politics.

Among the 57 dead were 30 media workers travelling in an election convoy - making it the deadliest single attack on reporters in the world.

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Key witness: House servant Lakmudin Saliao (centre) is flanked by security as he arrives at court. He claims that the 57 person massacre in the Philippines was concocted at a dinner

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Massacre: Some 30 members of the media were killed in southern Maguindanao province in November

The patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan senior, had gathered his siblings over dinner to ask them how they can stop their political rival from running for provincial governor, one of the key regional posts that the Ampatuans had held and exploited for years, Saliao said.

Former town mayor Andal Ampatuan junior, the scion of the clan and the prime suspect in the massacre, replied, 'That's easy. If they come here just kill them all,' Saliao told the court.

He said the elder Ampatuan then asked his children if they agreed with the plan, and according to Saliao, 'Everybody laughed, saying it's OK for everybody to be killed.'

Saliao said the Ampatuan patriarch ordered that his rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, must be stopped on a highway where he was supposed to pass on the way to file his candidacy papers.

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Accused: Maguindanao massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan junior enters a courtroom at a maximum security prison in Taguig, south of Manila where he pleaded not guilty

It was on the same spot that troops recovered the 57 bodies gunned down and hastily buried in mass graves dug by a backhoe. Mangudadatu, who was later elected governor in the May elections, had sent his wife, sisters and other female relatives accompanied by journalists in the belief that their lives would be spared.

The Ampatuans have denied the charges. Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 16 policemen were the first to be arraigned and were led in handcuffs into the courtroom packed with anxious relatives and observers inside a Manila maximum-security prison.

Black-clad sharpshooters patrolled the premises while dozens of heavily armed police stood guard.

The carnage drew international condemnation and prompted then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to impose martial law for a week as troops cracked down on the Ampatuans - her political allies.

A prominent senator, Joker Arroyo, has recently warned that the sheer volume of the case - at least 227 witnesses are listed by the prosecution and another 373 by the defense - means it could drag on for '200 years'.

Officials wouldn't comment on how long the trial will last but cautioned it will take time.

An average criminal case takes about seven years to complete due to lack of prosecutors and judges and a huge backlog of cases.

The Maguindanao massacre is considered to be the largest criminal prosecution since the country's World War II war crime trials.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the government Wednesday to protect witnesses and round up more than 100 suspects still at large, most of them linked to the Ampatuans' private army.

The watchdog said five people with knowledge of abuses by the Ampatuans have been gunned down.

'With fewer than half of the suspects in custody, witnesses, investigators, and others who might be deemed to be a threat to the Ampatuan family are at risk,' the group said in a statement.

'It's hard to fight the devil,' said Monette Salaysay, mother of Napoleon Salaysay, one of the slain journalists.

'So many were killed and yet the justice is exceedingly slow for helpless people like us.'

mailonsunday.co.uk

Philippines: Local Ruling Family’s Abuses Implicate Government

One Year After Massacre, Aquino Should Ban Militias, Investigate Private Armies

November 16, 2010

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Soldiers stand guard near assorted firearms unearthed on the farm of the Ampatuan family in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, in the southern Philippines on December 6, 2009.
© 2009 Reuters

Downloadable Resources:
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Available in Maguindanoan: Download Translation (PDF)

Related Materials:
"They Own the People"

Related Features:
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The Ampatuans, State-Backed Militias, and Killings in the Southern Philippines

The Maguindanao massacre was not an aberration, but the foreseeable consequence of unchecked killings and other serious abuses.

James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch

(Manila) - A ruling family in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao committed killings and other abuses over two decades with the support of government security forces and officials, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. One year after the massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao province attributed to the Ampatuan family and their "private army" on November 23, 2009, the Philippine government has failed to seriously investigate atrocities by powerful ruling families, ban abusive militia forces, or curtail access of officials to military weaponry.

The 96-page report, "‘They Own the People': The Ampatuans, State-Backed Militias, and Killings in the Southern Philippines," charts the Ampatuans' rise to power, including their use of violence to expand their control and eliminate threats to the family's rule. It is based on more than 80 interviews, including with people having insider knowledge of the Ampatuan family security structure, victims of abuses and their family members, and witnesses to crimes.

"The Maguindanao massacre was not an aberration, but the foreseeable consequence of unchecked killings and other serious abuses," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. "For two decades the Ampatuans committed atrocities with a ‘private army' manned by police and soldiers carrying government-supplied weapons."

Following the November 2009 massacre, Human Rights Watch travelled to Mindanao and investigated numerous abuses implicating the Ampatuans, including more than 50 incidents of killings, torture, sexual assault, and abductions. These cases show often unrestrained brutality, such as the torture and killing by chainsaw of individuals suspected to be involved in a bomb attack against an Ampatuan family member in 2002.

The report details how the military and police provided the Ampatuan family with manpower, modern military weapons, and protection from prosecution. Most members of their private army were also members of the police, military, or state-sanctioned paramilitary forces, including Civilian Volunteer Organizations and the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Units (CAFGUs).

The Ampatuans' rise and expansion was aided by the president at the time of the massacre, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who relied on the family for crucial votes and for support in the protracted armed conflict with Moro armed groups in Mindanao. Under the Arroyo administration, militia forces, which have a long history of human rights violations in the Philippines, were greatly strengthened because of the increased sale of military weaponry to local officials and other support. The administration also failed to address impunity for serious rights abuses: in 2002 Arroyo was directly notified of 33 killings allegedly perpetrated by the Ampatuans, but she took no apparent action.

"Families like the Ampatuans have used officially sanctioned paramilitaries as private armies to spread terror and maintain power," Ross said. "The government needs to stop being part of the problem and instead disband the militias and hold abusers to account."

Human Rights Watch said that police, the Justice Department, and other government agencies have long failed to investigate crimes linked to the Ampatuans. As a result, family members have acted as if they were above the law and without fear of being held accountable.

Following the massacre and the attention it received within the Philippines and abroad, the government arrested Ampatuan family members implicated in the killings, including former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and then-local mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., the primary suspect. A government source told Human Rights Watch that when the authorities arrested Ampatuan, Jr. following the massacre, he asked, "Which hotel will I be billeted in?"

The government has charged 195 people for the killings, including 19 currently on trial, but 115 of them remain at large.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the underlying causes of the massacre and the impunity enjoyed by militia forces generally have not been addressed by the Philippine government. The Ampatuans' militia was just one of more than 100 private armies estimated to operate throughout the Philippines. In practice, their size and armament is limited only by local politicians' ability to fund operational costs. Successive administrations have not dismantled and disarmed these militia forces, as stipulated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, nor have they investigated and prosecuted unlawful activities by those who control, arm, and use them for private ends.

Human Rights Watch called on the recently elected president, Benigno Aquino III, to fulfill his campaign promises of justice for victims of the Maguindanao massacre and other rights abuses by directing the National Bureau of Investigation to give priority to investigating the alleged abuses of the Ampatuans and their militia. He should carry out his pledge to abolish private armies by banning all paramilitary and militia forces in the Philippines. And he should act to eliminate the spread of military weaponry to armed groups outside the professional national security forces.

"The Philippine government could have turned the national tragedy of the Maguindanao massacre into a campaign to eliminate private armies and bring all those responsible for their abuses to justice," Ross said.

"The Philippine people - and the country's reputation - will continue to suffer so long as powerful ruling families are calling the shots."

Accounts from "‘They Own the People': The Ampatuans, State-Backed Militias, and Killings in the Southern Philippines":

"[A neighbor] came to my house and told me that they had been massacred. Only the mother and one son survived. The perpetrators were armed men of Datu Kanor, the trusted man of Datu Unsay [Ampatuan, Jr.]. Witnesses saw and recognized them."

-A woman whose husband and seven other family members, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed by the Ampatuans in 2008, while harvesting their rice fields.

"[One day, Ampatuan, Sr. had] asked all his friends and relatives to stay in his place [for a gathering]. I went to stay in his place.... After some time I heard people shouting. I was afraid to come out and see what was happening. Then I heard the sound of a chainsaw together with the voices of screaming people.... I heard someone saying, ‘As long as you will not say who your companions were, we will continue to do this to you.' I also heard, ‘Help, help us.'.... I assumed that they were killed by the chainsaw that night, as I continuously heard the screaming voices and the sound of the chainsaw until such a time that I didn't hear it anymore.

-A resident of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, describing an incident in 2002.

"We were afraid to file [criminal complaints] because during that time all government agencies were under the Ampatuans' control. No one dared to file a case as people look at Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. as [he was] the little president."

-A man who witnessed the killing of two of his relatives, Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

"You can't be installed as regional director [of police] if you don't go along with the policies of the [Ampatuan] government. [A police officer] has to give at least 50 weapons [to the Ampatuans] in order to become a regional director, including M14s, M16s. One [time], ... they requested some 700 firearms... The van [carrying the firearms] entered the camp, after a few hours it was escorted by the policemen from Maguindanao, taken to the [Ampatuan] residence."

-A police officer who was stationed in Maguindanao for several years.

9 Years After Philippine Massacre, Victims’ Relatives Still Await Justice

Nearly a decade has passed since Elliber Cablitas lost his wife, Marites, to the Philippines’ worst political massacre that left 58 dead, including journalists, yet justice has eluded him despite the government’s repeated promises that convictions will come.


Marites, who worked as publisher of a provincial newspaper and a news anchor at local broadcaster RPN, was among 32 media workers who were executed by followers of Andal Ampatuan Sr., patriarch of a local Muslim clan.


“For the ninth year, we are here again to remember them and feel the pain,” Cablitas, 52, told BenarNews during a recent trip to a remote hillock in the southern town of Ampatuan, where the grisly murders occurred on Nov. 23, 2009.


“It’s been too long already but we are still searching for justice because nobody has been convicted,” he said.


The journalists had joined a convoy led by the wife of Ismael Mangudadatu, who was filing his candidacy to contest the governorship of Maguindanao province against his rival, Ampatuan. Mangudadatu’s wife and several relatives and supporters were among the 26 other victims.


Ampatuan had earlier warned Mangudadatu against running for governor.


The convoy was flagged down along the highway by about 100 armed followers of Ampatuan. At gunpoint, the people from the convoy were led to a grassy hillock where they were peppered with bullets, and their bodies dumped in three freshly dug graves.


Mangudadatu had wrongly thought that sending his wife in a huge group that also included local journalists would guarantee their safety.



Slow justice


The scale of the violence was unprecedented in local politics, and it stunned the world. The Committee to Protect Journalists called it the “single deadliest event for journalists in history.”


The massacre also brought to light the intense rivalries in Philippine local elections, especially in far-flung areas where private armed groups are known to be on the payroll of political warlords.


No members of the Ampatuan clan have been convicted, and the murder trial has been moving slowly through the courts.


Earlier this week, Philippine justice officials announced that multiple murder cases against Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. and other suspects connected with the massacre had been submitted for a resolution at a regional trial court in Quezon City, near Manila, the Philippine Star reported.


“Per information from our prosecution panel, the case against Unsay is now submitted for decision upon ruling of the court on his formal offer of exhibits,” the newspaper quoted acting Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon as saying.


Menardo Guevarra, the Justice secretary, had earlier indicated that his department expected the court to reach a verdict in the trial sometime within the first three months of 2019, according to the Star.


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A relative brings a flower offering during a visit at the massacre site in Masalay, Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province, Nov. 18, 2018. [Froilan Gallardo/BenarNews]





‘The pain grows every year’


Last weekend, BenarNews joined relatives of the victims as they visited the site of the massacre.

Under the noonday sun, the relatives were overcome by grief.


They were joined by dozens of journalists, who gathered at the site to hear a special Mass for the victims. They lit candles, offered prayers for the victims and torched posters bearing the pictures of the principal suspects.


“Every time I set foot in this place, I can feel the anger inside me,” said Ayeesha Vanessa Dilangalen. “My mother did not deserve to die the way she did.”


Her mother, Bai Eden Mangudadatu, was the elder sister of Ismael Mangudadatu. She had accompanied Mangudadatu’s wife, Genalyn, on that fateful day.


“There is not a day that I come to visit here but, without justice, the pain lingers,” Dilangalen told BenarNews. “We feel there is no closure for the victims and the pain grows every year.”


The visit was also painful for the children of the victims, many of whom were still young when they lost their parents.


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Aya Subang, 9, (left) and a friend visit her father’s grave at the Ampatuan Massacre site in Masalay village, Nov. 18, 2018. [Froilan Gallardo/BenarNews]





Jinx Cyrus Maravilla, 14, was only three when she lost her father, Ernesto Maravilla, who was employed at local radio station Bombo Radyo.


Faded photographs, she said, offered her the only connection to a father she barely knew.


“My only treasured memory of my father is that before he left, he gave me a cone of ice cream,” Maravilla said. “Then he was gone.”


Fellow mourner Princess Anne Caniban, 14, was so enraged that she kicked a big tarp depicting the Ampatuan clan that was on display at the covered basketball court where the ceremonies were held.


“Convict the Ampatuans!” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.


Princess Anne is the daughter of another victim of the massacre, John Caniban of Periodico Ini newspaper in General Santos City. She later lit a candle and released a white balloon into the air as a form of remembering her father.


Nonoy Espina, a spokesman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, still remembers feeling numb and cold when he arrived at the site nine years ago.


“I am also angry that our justice system is so slow that the court has yet to decide on the case nine years after,” Espina told BenarNews.


“I can still remember the bodies on the ground here,” he said. “So much death was here at that time.”

https://www.benarnews.org/english/ne...018162901.html

You'll probably be posting similar when the Red Bull heir's ninth anniversary of getting off scot fucking free comes round.

Philippine Court Convicts Clan Members for Massacre of 58 People in Mindanao

A Philippine court on Thursday found 28 members of a Muslim clan guilty and sentenced them to life in prison for murdering 58 people, many of them journalists, a decade ago in what is described as the biggest single-day attack on the working press.


In a 761-page ruling, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes ordered the sentences without the possibility of parole against Zaldy Ampatuan, the former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and his brother, Andal Ampatuan Jr. who engineered the massacre. They are the sons of Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan patriarch, who died in jail before the trial concluded.


Ronnie Perante Jr., son of slain tabloid reporter Ronnie Sr., said the verdict was both a relief and shock.

“We’re happy that the main suspects were found guilty. But we don’t understand why the others were acquitted,” he told the Philippine News Agency.


The court also found Anwar Ampatuan, Datu Ulo Ampatuan, Datu Ipi Ampatuan, then-police Maj. Sukarno Dicay and 22 others guilty and sentenced them to life in prison as well. Fifteen others were found guilty for their roles in the killings and received sentences ranging from six to 10 years.


Two members of the clan, Akmad and Sajid Islam Ama, were among 56 people including dozens of police officers who were acquitted and ordered released, marking the end of the marathon trials held at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, a tightly guarded police camp near Manila.


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Philippine police man a Special Action Force anti-personnel vehicle during a security lock down at Camp Bagong Diwa, in preparation for the 2009 Ampatuan massacre verdict, Dec. 19, 2019. [Jojo Riñoza/BenarNews]
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On Nov. 23, 2009, the Ampatuan clan, backed by their privately controlled armed militiamen and police, ambushed a group of supporters of rival politician Esmael Mangudadatu, who had challenged the Ampatuan patriarch for the post of governor in the province of Maguindanao.

The clan gunned down Mangudadatu’s supporters and tried to hide their remains using a backhoe. Court documents released to the public detailed some of those killed showed signs of having been tortured including having their eyes gouged.

One of the militiamen recognized one of Mangudadatu’s drivers and asked Ampatuan Jr. to spare him, but the driver was shot and killed, according to the court documents.

Now a member of congress, Mangudadatu, whose wife and sisters were among those killed, said the guilty verdicts and sentencings showed the world that the law would eventually catch up with criminals.

“This will be a message not just to the people of Maguindanao but to the entire Philippines nation and the world that abusive power must and will stop, that their belief that they are entitled to power and that it will never end is not true,” Mangudadatu told reporters.


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Filipino journalists and activists join a candle-lighting ceremony on the eve of the verdict in the Ampatuan Massacre case, in Quezon City, Philippines, Dec. 18, 2019. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]
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New York-based Human Rights Watch said the verdict should help provide justice to the families of the victims and help promote accountability for rights abuses in the country.


“Advocates should use this verdict to spur further political and judicial reforms to ultimately end the impunity that has plagued the country for far too long,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director.


“More broadly, this verdict should prompt the country’s political leaders to finally act to end state support for ‘private armies’ and militias that promotes the political warlordism that gave rise to the Ampatuans,” he said.


Despite the convictions, Robertson said the victims’ survivors and witnesses remained at risk.


“Regardless of the verdicts in the case, Philippine authorities need to apprehend the several dozen suspects still at large. It should not take another crime as heinous as the Maguindanao Massacre for the Philippines to reform the delivery of justice,” Robertson said.


Nena Santos, a lawyer who represented 38 of the victims, said she had received “more than a hundred threats” over the 10 years she has been involved in the case. She said most threats were made via text messages and phone calls, but some people delivered their threats personally.


“They continue to harass, intimidate, and threaten,” Santos told BenarNews by phone. “Which is why the Philippine National Police should arrest the remaining suspects in the case.”


Since 2010, three witnesses in the case have been killed and none of the suspects were captured.



Journalists face dangers


Amnesty International regional director Nicholas Bequelin said the verdict represented a critical step for the survivors.
“Even with these convictions, the families’ search for justice remains far from over. Some 80 other people accused have yet to be arrested. The government must take steps to find and prosecute all those suspected to have taken part in the massacre,” he said.


Bequelin spoke about the 32 journalists and media workers slain in the massacre and those murdered since then.
“The Philippines is one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, with at least 15 journalists killed just this year in attacks believed to be related to their work. The government must ensure the security and safety of journalists in the country and prosecute those behind the killings,” Bequelin said.


The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed hope that people would be more aware of the role of a free press in the country.


“There really is so much at stake here. The fact that (the trial) … dragged on for 10 years really impacted our human rights situation. It contributed to the climate of impunity,” CHR spokeswoman Jacqueline de Guia said.


“It’s worrying that 10 years since the Maguindanao massacre, heightened attacks against the media continue. That is something that we decry in a democracy,” de Guia added.



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