Ampatuan charged, points to MILF
The Philippine Star – www.philstar.com
Friday, November 27, 2009
GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines – Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., accused of masterminding an election-related massacre that left more than 50 people dead, was formally charged with multiple murder here by the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the charges against Ampatuan stemmed from the formal complaint filed by Buluan town Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu whose wife, Genalyn, was among the 57 victims in last Monday’s carnage in Maguindanao.
Devanadera said they took the opportunity to conduct the inquest since the accused and the complainant, along with other witnesses, were present.
Mangudadatu appeared emotional during the inquest proceedings held at the Awang airport in General Santos City and almost came to blows with Ampatuan.
After signing the complaint, Mangudadatu left the room where the inquest proceedings began with the reading of charges against Ampatuan, who denied the accusations.
The inquest was witnessed by Devanadera and Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, who fetched Ampatuan from the provincial capital at Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao a few hours earlier.
Ampatuan, who earned the moniker “Butcher of Maguindanao,” appeared before Dureza before lunchtime and denied involvement in the killings.
“Wala pong katotohanan iyon (There is no truth to that),” Ampatuan told reporters while being whisked by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to a waiting airplane at General Santos City for a flight to Manila.
When Ampatuan was turned over to the custody of the NBI in Manila last night, he insisted that he was innocent and pointed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) behind the carnage.
“The MILF did it. It’s Umbra Kato because they are terrorists,” Ampatuan said in referring to the renegade MILF commander who staged the bloody rampage in Central Mindanao in August last year after the Supreme Court turned down the preliminary peace deal with the MILF that would have given the rebel group control over an expanded Muslim autonomous region.
Ampatuan insisted before reporters at the NBI that he was innocent and has nothing to do with the murders.
The brief statements were Ampatuan’s only remarks after three days of being accused as the principal suspect behind last Monday’s carnage.
Ampatuan appeared before Dureza as heavily armed troops and armored vehicles were deployed at the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak in the effort to secure the surrender of the accused mayor.
Ampatuan was accompanied by his elder brother, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, and other relatives who presented him to Dureza at the provincial capitol grounds.
Ampatuan, wearing a kaffiyeh headscarf to hide his face, shook hands with Dureza before hugging him.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries and goodbyes, Ampatuan joined Dureza in a helicopter to Awang airport in General Santos City.
Dureza added the situation was so tense that unidentified men opened fire at their helicopter on the way to the airport in General Santos City where the inquest was held.
Following the inquest, Ampatuan quickly boarded an Air Force Fokker jet that arrived in Manila last night.
Ampatuan was immediately motored to the NBI main office in Manila where he was detained.
Devanadera said Ampatuan would remain under NBI custody until after both parties, the complainant and the accused, have agreed to resolve the case within 36 hours.
Devanadera said she created a panel of prosecutors to expedite the investigation.
One of the prosecutors, Edilberto Jamora, said they were given 36 hours to resolve the complaint filed by Mangudadatu that accused Ampatuan of the murders.
The panel had been tasked to file the information before a special court that would be created by the Supreme Court to hear the case.
The government has been under extreme pressure at home and abroad to arrest Ampatuan, who was tagged as the mastermind of the massacre.
Mangudadatu accused Ampatuan of leading a hundred gunmen in abducting a convoy of supporters on their way to file his certificate of candidacy to contest the governorship now held by the elder Ampatuan for the next year’s elections.
The victims were snatched from the six-vehicle convoy and shot a short time later, then dumped and buried in shallow graves in a remote farming road near Ampatuan town.
Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far.
‘My father’s wishes will be followed’
Energy Undersecretary Zamzamin Ampatuan said the clan elders were able to convince his nephew to give up and submit to an investigation.
He said the Ampatuan elders, led by Maguindanao Gov. Andal Sr., discussed the issue Wednesday night and decided to turn over his son to the authorities.
“We were able to convince him to give up and clear the accusations against him. He said he is not guilty and it was not him, but he did not pinpoint anyone behind it,” Zamzamin said.
Zamzamin said the family has designated Siegfred Fortun as counsel for Ampatuan Jr.
Zamzamin expressed relief that his nephew finally agreed to submit to questioning, saying “the investigation should be pursued until the truth is cleared and justice is attained for the victims of this massacre.”
He stressed Ampatuan Jr.’s voluntary surrender is “a key step” in attaining the justice for the massacre victims.
“I am willing to do that, if I have to be jailed, I am willing to do that. I am sorry for dragging the name of the whole family here. I am very sorry. If only to clear up my name and help ease the tension here, I am following the advice of everybody and that of my father. My father’s wishes will be followed,” Zamzamin quoted the younger Ampatuan as saying during the meeting with the family elders.
According to Zamzamin, the younger Ampatuan was even crying during the family conference. He said his nephew later accepted his fate.
“The only thing he was concerned about was that when he is taken into custody and in jail, he was afraid (that) he would be killed,” Zamzamin said.
Under pressure
Ampatuan’s surrender followed three days of negotiations between his family and Dureza, who was tasked by President Arroyo to lead the crisis team that would handle the investigation and contain the situation.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said he warned the Ampatuan family they risked a military attack unless they turned over Ampatuan Jr. by midday yesterday.
The military came in huge numbers as they disarmed about 350 militiamen said to be loyal to the Ampatuans.
Puno added more than 300 militiamen had been taken into custody.
The military deployed tanks and truckloads of troops throughout the province, placed under a state of emergency to hunt down the suspects and prevent retaliatory violence between the Ampatuans and Mangudadatus.
Soldiers were posted in the provincial capitol and other local government offices, even in the police station.
Puno said five senior policemen were also brought to Manila for questioning about their roles in the massacre.
Puno said Maguindanao police director Senior Superintendent Agusana Maguid, Inspector Sukarno Dikay, Senior Inspector Ariel Diongon and SPO2 Badawi Bakal were placed under investigation.
He said all policemen from Ampatuan town are now being considered suspects.
Puno said he would recommend to President Arroyo that all provincial officials, including the Maguindanao governor, be suspended.
He said the elder Ampatuan should be investigated for potential links to the murders.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said he would also consider replacing the entire police force of Maguindanao.
Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said the military is going after the remaining militiamen who were allegedly part of the 100 gunmen that participated in the massacre.
“Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao,” Brawner said.
“That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations,” he said. –With Edu Punay, Edith Regalado, James Mananghaya, Cecille Suerte Felipe, John Unson, Sandy Araneta,
Witness in mass kill surfaces: ‘We just followed orders’
Multiple murder raps filed vs Ampatuan Jr.
The Daily Tribune – www.tribune.net
Friday, November 27, 2009
Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. who surrendered to government authorities yesterday was formally charged by the Department of Justice (DoJ) with multiple murder immediately after the inquest held at General Santos Airport.
The inquest was presided over by DoJ Chief Agnes Devanadera, together with Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño.
Andal Jr. insisted on his innocence and denied any involvement in the Maguindanao Massacre killing close to 60 persons who were in a convoy accompanying Esmael Mangudadatu’s wife, relatives, supporters, lawyers and journalists on their way to file his certificate of candidacy in his stead.
But a man who says he was a witness to Monday’s massacre in Maguindanao told Al Jazeera how he was ordered by Andal Jr. to kill members of a rival political clan, including women and children, and to make sure no evidence was left behind, Al Jazeera Web site reported.
The witness, who identified himself only as “Boy,” said he was among more
than 100 armed men who held up a convoy of political campaigners and journalists before taking them to a remote mountainous area where they were then killed.
The witness claimed the orders had come directly from Ampatuan Jr., a mayor and a member of a politically powerful Maguindanao governor with close ties to President Arroyo.
“Datu Andal himself said to us: ‘Anyone from the Mangudadatu clan - women or children - should be killed...’ We don’t ask why, we just followed orders.”
“Boy” now in hiding, fearing his life, stated that “all of the women in the group had been raped before being killed” then dumped in mass graves that had already been dug out in advance using an excavator.
He said that Ampatuan Jr had also ordered that the reporters accompanying the convoy should also be killed to cover-up what had happened.
“Boy” said the whole process had lasted little more than an hour before the gunmen had to abruptly abandon the scene following a warning that members of the military were nearby.
“We didn’t get to finish, which is why the excavator was left there,” he said.
“Someone called and said soldiers were on their way. I feel they have connections among the soldiers.”
Speaking with his face covered to hide his identity, Boy said he was supposed to have been an active participant in the massacre but did not actually kill any of the victims.
Murder charges were filed by Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu yesterday against his bitter political rival Andal Jr. in connection to the killing of 57 persons, including 18 journalists last Monday.
The complaint was filed before the prosecutor’s office in General Santos City.
Philippine Information Agency Region XII Director Olive Suderia told reporters in a teleconference while witnessing the event that an “apparently angry and emotional” Mangudadatu entered the room and was about to point a finger at Ampatuan when he was stopped and asked to cool down first.
The complaint-affidavit was sworn in before City Prosecutor Edilberto Jamora by Mangudadatu.
Ampatuan was joined by lawyer Sigfried Fortun and joined by two cousins, Energy Undersecretary Samsamin Ampatuan and lawyer Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi during the inquest.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies secured the inquest proceedings.
The “Group 1” prosecutors are designated to handle the inquest/preliminary investigation of all cases arising from the Maguindanao massacre.
“The team is directed to act with dispatch and resolve immediately cases that may be referred to them and if the evidence so warrants, to file the corresponding information and handle the active prosecution before the proper court.” Devanadera said
The Group 2 prosecutors are designated to handle any and all cases that may be initially filed in their respective areas of responsibility.
Arroyo officials had been negotiating since Tuesday with Ampatuan’s family for him to submit to questioning.
Maguindanao is part of the lawless Mindanao island, where Muslim clans rule vast areas backed by their own private armies, often out of the national government’s control.
Ampatuan Sr. had been grooming his son, currently a local mayor, to take over as governor of Maguindanao. Highlighting the extensive reach of the Ampatuans throughout the power structure of Maguindanao, Interior Secretary Ronnie Puno said Thursday more than 300 policemen or government militiamen there had been taken into custody.
Five senior policemen from Maguindanao had also been brought to Manila for questioning about their roles in the massacre, and all police from Ampatuan town were being considered suspects, according to Puno.
He said he had also recommended to Arroyo that all provincial officials, including Ampatuan Sr, be suspended and that the father be investigated for his potential links to the murders.
Puno said the national authorities had not been able to act as quickly as many wanted because local police and soldiers were suspected of being loyal to the Ampatuans.
“It was very difficult for us to rely on the local military and police forces to carry out the directives of the central headquarters on both the armed forces and police side,” he said.
Puno, a press conference yesterday said the government has quietly taken an array of forceful measures meant to bring to justice all those responsible for the massacre of at least 57 people in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao and at the same time restore peace and order in the province.
Puno said that hours after the heinous crime was uncovered last Monday, the government had immediately created a crisis management committee led by Presidential Adviser for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, on top of the local crisis management panel formed to investigate the incident, to take measures that led, among others, to Thursday morning’s surrender of Andal Jr..
“We gave him an ultimatum yesterday and we gave him until 10 (Thursday)) morning,” Puno said.
He said that had Ampatuan refused to board the plane that would take him to General Santos City enroute to Manila, both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) were prepared to take action and exert all physical force necessary to ensure that he is brought to inquest by the DoJ.
On top of taking custody of Ampatuan, who is a suspect in the massive killings, Puno said four police officers allegedly involved in the incident were removed from their posts and were already placed under restrictive custody since Monday.
“What we did was to focus on three general areas: take physical control, conduct an honest-to-goodness investigation that will yield evidence that will hold up in court, and informing the public of developments and keeping confidential first information of sensitive character, measures that need to be implemented first before we can report it to the media,” Puno said.
“This is something our society cannot accept; our enforcers of the law cannot accept. We are sorry if we were not been very open about all the things
we have been doing. We have all been bound by the exigencies of the work we have to do,” Puno said.
Law enforcers, Puno said, also ensured that the four companies of Special Cafgu Active Auxiliary (SCAA) units in the area were deactivated and all of their 347 members combined were disarmed.
The DoJ, Puno said, has also quietly taken the deposition of all witnesses who would provide strong evidence for the government to be able to build an airtight case against those responsible for the massacre.
National police chief Jesus Verzosa told reporters he would ask the national government to be allowed to replace the entire police force of Maguindanao.
And despite more than 1,000 extra soldiers being sent into Maguindanao to restore order, the military said most of the Ampatuan family’s militiamen alleged to have carried out the massacre were still on the run.
“Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away toward the mountainous area of Maguindanao,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said in an interview. “That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations.”
Meanwhile, Malacañang welcomed the arrest of Andal Jr.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, in a statement, said that Ampatuan, Jr.’s arrest was only the beginning of the government’s serious and relentless pursuit against perpetrators of the shameful crime.
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo said the Ampatuans are still the friends of the Arroyos despite their involvement in the incident as Ampatuan, Jr. has not been proven guilty yet as charged.
“The friendship between the President and the Ampatuans will not be severed because of this incident. It doesn’t mean that because they are in this situation so we will turn our backs on them,” Fajardo said.
President Arroyo, during payer breakfast, saud: “Let us pray that the grieving relatives and friends of the victims be granted the solace of faith and peace of mind. Let us pray that the burden of anger and revenge be lifted from their hearts so that they may become instruments of a return to peace rather than the continuation of violence.” With Mario J. Mallari, Gina Peralta-Elorde, Aytch S. dela Cruz, Benjamin B. Pulta and AFP
400 Ampatuan bodyguards under probe -- PNP
By TJ Burgonio
Friday, November 27, 2009
MANILA, Philippines -- Now that Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. has been taken into custody, the Philippine National Police faces the daunting task of building up cases against close to 400 armed bodyguards of his father, Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.
The authorities led by the military have disarmed 347 members of the Special Active Auxiliary (SCAA) of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) under the employ of the Maguindanao provincial government, and seized their government-issued firearms.
“All security people are also possible suspects,'' Director Andres Caro, Philippine National Police director for operations, said in a Malacañang briefing. “We are investigating them. More or less it will total about 400, including cops and families.''
The Ampatuans had been allowed to keep an army of bodyguards for years now in view of threats posed by the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, officials had said.
“The AFP and the PNP are really sort of employing these multiplier forces. We don't have full forces with the vast archipelago,'' Caro said.
Andal Jr. turned himself in Thursday to Secretary Jesus Dureza three days after Monday's massacre of civilians in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.
The military and police deployed big contingents of forces to seal off Maguindanao, keep close tabs on the movement of groups and maintain law and order in the aftermath of the massacre.
“This is the most complex case we had,'' Caro said.
In view of the massacre, the government would need to review whether to reactivate the SCAA, said Undersecretary Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson.
``(We will) assess if there is a need for it,'' she said in the same briefing.
If reactivated, the members of this unit ``would have to be screened to prevent warlordism,'' Caro said. However, he said that the military and police had recommended to the Commission on Elections that only soldiers, policemen and agents of private detective agencies would be deputized as security detail of politicians in the May 2010 national elections.
``Only the members of AFP, PNP and other agencies shall be allowed to bear firearms,'' he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment