Ampatuans quizzed on bombing try

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – The provincial prosecutor summoned Ampatuan clan members on Friday to shed light on their alleged involvement in a recent bombing attempt in Shariff Aguak town.

Senior Inspector Archie Pajaro, Shariff Aguak police chief, said Akmad Ampatuan and his son, Marouf, were asked to answer allegations by witnesses that they masterminded the planting of a homemade bomb at the entrance to the Shariff Aguak municipal compound.

The young Ampatuan is the incumbent vice mayor of Shariff Aguak, whose mayor is Zahara Upam-Ampatuan.

The improvised explosive, fashioned from a live mortar round rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism, was found by passersby last May 9 and was defused by Army ordnance experts.

The Ampatuans, along with their alleged accomplices, former Shariff Aguak municipal administrator Casmir Ampatuan, Pendatun Ampatuan, Abbi Aguak, and former provincial board member Zainudin Abutazil, have all been served subpoenas signed by Maguindanao provincial prosecutor Tocod Ronda, according to Pajaro.

The suspects are related to jailed former governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., who, along with other clan members, is being tried for Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre that left 58 people dead, more than 30 of them journalists.

The Shariff Aguak mayor is a daughter-in-law of the detained former governor. 

The gate of the Shariff Aguak municipal compound is not far from the spot where a powerful car bomb went off in July 2005.

The explosive was set off using a mobile phone while the convoy of the Ampatuan patriarch was passing by, killing seven people and wounding more than 10 others.