ZAMBOANGA CITY: Government prosecutors on Tuesday filed 25 counts of murder against the scion of a powerful clan linked to the brutal slayings of 57 people, more than half of them journalists, in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
The prosecutors presented more evidence that implicated Andal Ampatuan Jr, the mayor of Datu Unsay town, in the Nov. 23 attack on the election convoy of a political rival.
The charges were filed in a court in the southern city of Cotabato, which has jurisdiction over the remote farming area.
However, authorities said they were looking to have the case heard outside of the southern Philippines because witnesses were extremely worried about intimidation or other repercussions. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said she will ask the court to try the case elsewhere, fearing witnesses may become reluctant to testify over fears for their safety.
“The evidence is strong,” Calica said, adding that at least 10 witnesses provided written testimonies linking Ampatuan to the killings.
Three witnesses, who escaped because their car was at the tail end of the convoy, said they saw Ampatuan and about 100 gunmen, including police officers, stopping the cars, prosecutor Al Calica said.
Hours later, troops found bullet-riddled and hacked-up bodies near the highway sprawled in the grass and hastily buried with a backhoe in three mass graves.
Ampatuan turned himself in last week. He has denied the charges.
He is the scion of a clan allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that has ruled Maguindanao unopposed for years. His father — the family’s patriarch — and six other family members also are considered suspects but have not been charged.
The caravan was carrying 30 journalists and the wife, two sisters, an aunt and several supporters of Ampatuan’s rival, Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao’s Buluan township.
Mangudadatu had sent his relatives to file his candidacy papers to run for governor in the May elections because he said Ampatuan had threatened to chop him to pieces if he attempted to challenge the clan’s ironclad control. Mangudadatu has said he believed female family members would not be harmed.
— With input from agencies
