Remains of 2 more men dug up in Maguindanao

MANILA, Philippines - Two more cases await the Ampatuan clan in connection with the “chainsaw killings” they allegedly perpetrated in Maguindanao prior to the massacre that left at least 57 people dead in November 2009, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

This, after authorities unearthed over the weekend in a remote Maguindanao village the skeletal remains of two persons believed to be victims of these killings.

In a press conference yesterday, De Lima said she led operatives of the police and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in excavating the remains from a burial site in Barangay Satan, Shariff Aguak town, some five kilometers away from the Ampatuans’ mansions.

De Lima said informants told them that the remains possibly belonged to Murad Badjunaid and Harod Abdullah, both supporters of former Maguindanao governor Zacaria Candao who were reported missing in 2003. Candao was a political rival of the Ampatuans.

“One of the skeletal remains was placed in a sack and the body was apparently chopped, while the other one was outside the sack,” she said.

The remains have been turned over to the NBI medico-legal officer in General Santos City and would later be brought to the NBI main office in Manila for forensic examination, she added.

The two victims were allegedly killed upon orders of the Ampatuans in 2009 and 2007, De Lima earlier said.

Last February, authorities also recovered two other sets of skeletal remains of other suspected victims of the “chainsaw killings” in the province.

De Lima said authorities, who were accompanied by an informant, then proceeded to another gravesite 30 minutes away and found 10 M-16 Armalite rifles, one M-14 rifle, and two live improvised explosive devices.

She believes the guns came from a bigger site, which was supposed to be raided last April 1 in the compound owned by Sajid Ampatuan. The raid though was called off due to the presence of the Ampatuans’ lawyers.