Massacre widows file plunder raps vs Ampatuans

MANILA, Philippines - The widows of seven journalists slain with dozens of others in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre filed plunder, graft and forfeiture complaints yesterday against 25 members of the Ampatuan clan before the Office of the Ombudsman, accusing them of amassing up to P200 million in unexplained wealth.

Former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and sons former mayor Andal Jr., and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy led the long list of respondents to the case filed with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Lawyer Romel Bagares said his clients – Ramonita Salaysay, Editha Mirandilla Tiamzon, Juliet Palor Evardo, Ma. Cipriana Gatchalian, Arlyn Lupogan, Catherine Nuñez, and Myrna Reblando – based their complaints on the Ampatuans’ questionable acquisition of 35 mansions in Davao alone and about a hundred vehicles, 56 of which are luxury cars.

He said the value of the clan’s unexplained wealth is between P77 million and P200 million, meaning it falls under the crime of plunder.

In a 17-page charge sheet, the complainants said the Ampatuans “helped themselves to public money as they gained control of the public coffers in the province” while in power.

“Thus, what pertained to the public became part and parcel of the private preserve of the respondents. It could only have been plunder as never seen before in the Philippines after Marcos,” they said.

“The wealth they had accumulated over time is fabled but it is only now, after the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre – where 58 people, including 32 journalists and media workers, perished – that the public could get a truer glimpse of the worldly treasures a political clan with direct access to the corridors of power in Manila at the height of their power has stored up in their earthly kingdom,” the complaint read.

Quoting an investigative report, the complainants said Andal Sr. has eight listed properties in Davao including a 4,015-square-meter lot that is said to be the likely site of his first wife Bai Laila’s unfinished mansion; another two in Matina Crossing; and two more in Nova Tierra.

Andal Jr., on the other hand, allegedly has 16 houses to his name including nine mansions in Juna Subdivision, two in Matina Crossing, three in Nova Tierra and two in Luzviminda Subdivision.

Based on his Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), Andal Jr. is allegedly the richest Ampatuan with a declared net worth of P39.3 million as of 2008.

Also quoting an investigative report, the complainants said “the powerful clan also could have owned as many as 121 various vehicles, including at least 53 high-end luxury vehicles ‘that are the latest of their kind’.”

“These luxury vehicles alone could well already be worth at least P50 million, even if valued only at a ridiculously low price of P1 million each, which obviously is not the case,” they said.

“Their properties in Davao City, their palatial homes in their hometown in Shariff Aguak, and their fleet of cars, present a staggering picture of how one powerful political clan could abuse their position of power and raid and plunder the public coffers as if these were their private purse. The Davao City houses and landholdings and the vehicles could well be worth anywhere between P77 million and P200 million,” the complaint read.

“With public funds, they purchased vehicles, bought land holdings, and built expensive houses for their own and their families’ private enjoyment. They plundered public funds entrusted to them with impunity, secure in the thought that with no less than the highest official in the land backing them – Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – they were beyond the reach of the law, they were untouchables,” the complaint read.

The original targets of the massacre were the wife and some relatives of former Buluan vice mayor and now Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu who were on their way to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak to file his certificate of candidacy for governor. The group included journalists and lawyers.