Ampatuan Sr. files COC, indicted for massacre

MANILA, Philippines - Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. would not be able to campaign in his bid for reelection in the May 2010 elections after he was included among the suspects behind the Nov. 23 brutal massacre of 57 people in the province.

Police said the elder Ampatuan would now join his son, Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., in the multiple murder raps along with 11 other suspects.

Amid the controversies implicating their family in last week’s mass murders, Ampatuan Sr. filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) seeking reelection as governor of the province.

Ampatuan filed his COC through an emissary as an independent candidate, provincial election officials said.

Police, on the other hand, said Ampatuan Sr. would be charged on the basis of the use of the provincial government-owned backhoe used in digging the mass graves at the crime scene.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano added the elder Ampatuan’s possible involvement in murder was also based on the testimonies of witnesses that he ordered his men to mount .50 caliber machine guns on two armored vehicles before the carnage occurred.

Aside from the father and son, the others that are facing murder charges include grandson Datu Ulo Ampatuan, Salibo town Vice Mayor Bahnarin Ampatuan, police auxiliary Tony Kenis Ampatuan, Sangguniang member Muhamad Sanki, Tammy Masukat, police auxiliary Tumi Timba Abas, PO1 Abbey Guiaden, the former police chief of Datu Unsay town; CVO Kumander Beri, alias Dahutay, and about 100 others.

Senior Superintendent Ericson Velasquez of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said the charges were based on the statement of at least six policemen who took part in the attack.

Velasquez added the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering including the six policemen as possible state witnesses.

Velasquez said investigators have established a clear picture of what took place, based on the statements made by Maguindanao police deputy director Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay and Senior Inspector Ariel Diongon of the Provincial Mobile Group.

The two police officers led a team manning the checkpoint when Ampatuan Jr. and his armed bodyguards appeared and blocked the convoy of his rival Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.

Police also confirmed that two of the gunmen, identified as CVOs Esmael Canapia and Takpan Dilon, are now in custody.

The two gunmen, said to be close aides of the vice mayor of Ampatuan town, were arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearms.

Police said some of the spent shells recovered from the crime scene matched the firearms seized from the two suspects.

Soriano added 14 more policemen would become witnesses in the case.

Suspicion fell on Andal Jr., who allegedly ordered his private militia of more than 100 gunmen to snatch and kill the convoy of Mangudadatu in a remote farming road in Barangay Salman near Ampatuan town on Nov. 23.

Some 30 journalists accompanying the convoy as well as passing motorists who happened to be at the scene were also killed.

Mangudadatu’s wife Genalyn led the ill-fated six-vehicle convoy on their way to file her husband’s COC when Ampatuan Jr.’s armed militia blocked their path.

Ampatuan Jr. was later charged with multiple counts of murder and is being held without bail.

Ampatuan Sr. on the other hand, filed his candidacy two days after 33 of the 36 town mayors in Maguindanao picked Datu Odin town Mayor Ombra Sinsuat as their gubernatorial candidate, with Guindulugan town Mayor Antao Midtimbang as his running mate.

The gubernatorial contest would be between Sinsuat, Ampatuan Sr. and Mangudadatu.

Sinsuat is relative of Mangudadatu, whose wife and relatives were among 57 people murdered in last week’s massacre in Maguindanao.

Despite the overwhelming choice of Sinsuat, Ampatuan Sr. has decided to push through with his candidacy, surprising the local officials in the region.

As suspicions fell on the Ampatuans, the ruling party Lakas-Kampi-CMD expelled the family from its ranks, denying them the party machinery and support for the 2010 elections.

The Ampatuans are known political allies of President Arroyo. The Ampatuan patriarch used to be the regional chairman of the administration party.

With the expulsion of the Ampatuans, the ruling party is left without a leader in the region.

“We really don’t know who is provincial party chairman now in Maguindanao. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD) has not announced yet who would take over the position of the old man of the Ampatuan family,” a mayor in the second district of the province said. –With John Unson