'Suspend, dismiss officials involved in massacre'

MANILA, Philippines - It is not enough that Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the suspected mastermind behind the murder of 57 civilians in Maguindanao last week, was arrested and formally charged with multiple murder.

“The government should also suspend or dismiss local officials tagged in the massacre,” the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said yesterday.

CHR chairman Leila de Lima said the arrest of the younger Ampatuan is merely one of the many options that the government, especially the executive branch, can use to attain justice for the victims.

“We have yet to see the executive department explore and apply the remedies of administrative complaints and preventive suspension under the Local Government Code against Governor Ampatuan and various local officials,” De Lima said.

She said other people involved in the gruesome murders, as well as local officials who failed to act on the killings should not go scot-free just because Ampatuan Jr. had been arrested.

“There are several actors who must be held accountable for the massacre and the aftermath of it. This must not be lost in fever-pitch focus on the filing of criminal charges against the alleged mastermind, Mayor Ampatuan Jr.,” she said.

“In the meantime, there are interim measures, such as preventive suspension, that can dislodge the same local officials who had not acted expeditiously and in upstanding fashion after the massacre.

“We need to ensure that the apparent inability of the local government to address the murders does not lead to an atmosphere prejudicial to the conduct of a proper investigation. We need to remove from power all those who are seen to be subordinate to local political influence and not the rule of law, and we must do this now,” she added.

De Lima said the Ampatuan clan, being local chief executives, should have initiated the investigation on the massacre.

“The Ampatuans, in their role as regional governor, governor and mayor, failed to order the immediate investigation of the incident, failed to address the public outrage to dispel allegations and categorically deny their involvement in the killings,” De Lima pointed out.

“The silence and inaction of the governors, together with the rest of the local officials and police, suggest complicity, if not implicitly condoning the crime.” 

The local governments within the ARMM, De Lima even noted, “are undoubtedly under the general supervision of President.”

“For the governor’s omission to immediately investigate the killings,” De Lima emphasized, “the President can at the very least demand an explanation.”

De Lima said the “verified fact” that the backhoe owned by the Province of Maguindanao was found at the scene of the carnage, should have forced President Arroyo to demand an explanation from the Ampatuans through the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

She said, however, they were “encouraged and heartened” by Mrs. Arroyo’s orders of a “no let-up, no sacred cow” investigation of the Maguindanao massacre. – With Christina Mendez