Ampatuan kin kills wife, buries body

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, Philippines – Police arrested yesterday a soldier-relative of the Ampatuans for killing his wife and burying her body in an Army camp in Carmen, North Cotabato several days ago.

The suspect, Pfc. Mariano Ampatuan, belongs to an engineering unit of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade based in Carmen town.

Chief Inspector Jordine Maribojo, Carmen police chief, said Ampatuan did not resist arrest after policemen excavated his wife’s remains with the help of his colleagues.

Dr. Jose Naquitquitan, Carmen municipal health officer, said the body of Ampatuan’s wife, Bernadette, 37, had bruises and a deep wound in the head. She was buried naked, Maribojo said.

Ampatuan’s colleagues had overheard him and his wife trading invectives hours before she disappeared.

Maribojo said she left their house in Malita, Davao del Sur on Sept. 11 to visit her husband in Carmen town.

Her relatives, led by brother-in law Isabelo Masiwel, a Davao del Sur provincial board member, began searching for her on Sept. 17 after she failed to return home.

“At first, Pfc. Ampatuan denied he knew his wife’s whereabouts. But we received information that the wife did not leave the premises of the Army’s headquarters. So we decided to search and subsequently learned that she had been killed and buried there,” Maribojo said. Ampatuan later owned up to killing.