Nearly half of Maguindanao massacre suspects caught - CIDG

MANILA, Philippines - Fifty percent of the suspects in the Maguindanao massacre have already been arrested, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has reported.

Last Tuesday, CIDG agents arrested another massacre suspect in Las Piñas City, bringing the total number of arrested suspects to 102.

CIDG Director Samuel Pagdilao said they have already accounted for almost 50 percent of the 196 suspects involved in the massacre, with only 94 suspects still at large.

Pagdilao said a team of personnel from the CIDG’s Detective and Special Operations Division and Anti-Fraud and Commercial Crime Division arrested Anwar Sajid Ampatuan at BF Resort, Las Piñas City around 6:30 p.m.

Pagdilao said CIDG police officers also seized from the suspect a .45 caliber pistol with two magazines.

Ampatuan carries a P250,000 reward for his arrest, pursuant to Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Memorandum Circular 2010-53.

Ampatuan, said the CIDG, is a grandson of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and was identified by witnesses as among those who shot at the 57 victims – including 34 journalists – of the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.

Pagdilao added that the arrest of Ampatuan is the result of a new direction that CIDG tracker teams are following, which focuses more on members of the Ampatuan clan instead of their followers.