Cop-witness in Maguindanao massacre missing

PARANG, Maguindanao, Philippines — Police officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) confirmed yesterday that Inspector Rex T. Diongon, a possible vital witness in the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre, was reported missing after the police officer allegedly escaped from his custodians at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

ARMM police director Senior Superintendent Bienvenido Garcia Latag told The STAR that Diongon was reported missing since Friday.

Latag said Diongon has been under restrictive custody and confinement at the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame after the massacre when he was brought to Manila from Maguindanao for questioning.

Diongon was group director of the Police Provincial Mobile Group (PPMG) in Maguindanao when the massacre happened.

He said Diongon was able to escape from his escort Senior Police Officer 4 Nashrin Jakarain and other custodians from Headquarters Service Group at Camp Crame.     

Police officials also confirmed that seven other policemen implicated in the carnage had been missing days after the massacre.

The missing policemen were identified as Diongon’s deputy director at the PPMG in Maguindanao Inspector Michael Joy Macaraeg, Police Officers 1 Musa D. Abad, Jonathan Engid, Joharto E. Kaminda, Zoharto E. Samson, Abdul D. Macatimbol, and Abbey Guidem.

Macaraeg and the six other police officers were also charged with multiple murder for their involvement in the alleged conspiracy and cover-up of the massacre.

In their affidavit with the DOJ, Diongon said they were ordered by Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao to stop the convoy of the Mangudadatu clan and media men at the highway boundary of Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat in Ampatuan town also in Maguindanao before the victims were brought to Barangay Salman where they were later found dead.

The incident resulted in the killing of 57 people, including the wife of Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu of Buluan, Maguindanao and two of his sisters, two female lawyers and 30 media men who covered the supposed filing of certificate of candidacy of the vice mayor who is running for governor of Maguindanao to challenge a scion of the Ampatuan clan.

The Mangudadatus have blamed the Ampatuans for the incident, specifically pointing to Andal Jr. as the leader of more than 100 armed men who abducted Mangudadatu’s supporters.