MANILA — The Philippine government on Saturday dropped charges against two prominent members of a powerful political family accused of the mass killing of 57 people in November, the single worst incident of political violence on record here.
Although the main suspect in the massacre, Andal Ampatuan Jr., remains in jail facing multiple murder charges, the dismissal by the Department of Justice of the cases against two of his brothers — Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan — surprised Filipinos and alarmed human rights advocates.
With the dismissal of the charges, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “has moved another step closer to leaving a legacy of impunity for extrajudicial killings,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch.
The Ampatuans are the most powerful political family in the predominantly Muslim province of Maguindanao and are close allies of Mrs. Arroyo. According to prosecutors, Andal Ampatuan Jr. personally led the slaughter of the 57 opposition supporters on Nov. 23.
On that day, his men — among them police officers and members of a government militia — stopped the victims at a roadblock and then brought them to a hill where they were shot and hacked to death. Prosecutors say a government backhoe was then used to bury the bodies.
On Thursday, the authorities moved Andal Ampatuan Jr. to a maximum security facility in a Manila suburb, citing public safety. His father, a former governor of Maguindanao, remains in custody and is likewise facing charges.
Zaldy Ampatuan, who was a regional governor at the time of the killings, is the highest-ranking official implicated in the case. Both Akmad Ampatuan and Andal Ampatuan Jr. were mayors of towns in Maguindanao Province.
Prosecutors initially said the massacre could not have happened without the complicity of other Ampatuans, among them Zaldy and Akmad.
But on Saturday, Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said prosecutors had failed to establish a conspiracy involving the two Ampatuans. “Existence of conspiracy was not proven, and being relatives and having similar surnames does not mean there was conspiracy,” Mr. Agra said, according to The Philippine Star, a Manila newspaper.
Mr. Agra said that Zaldy Ampatuan had a convincing alibi and that he had presented plane tickets and phone records to show he was not in the province during the massacre. Akmad Ampatuan also had an alibi, the secretary said.
Mr. Agra also ordered the dismissal of similar cases against five other individuals, among them a crucial witness.
“This is evidence that the victims cannot get justice under the administration of President Arroyo,” Harry Roque, a lawyer for some of the victims, told reporters on Saturday.
There were also concerns raised about the successful prosecution of the suspects, numbering nearly 200, after at least one witness to the massacre and two of his relatives were killed, according to Human Rights Watch.
“The government has failed to adequately protect witnesses and their families, which means crucial witnesses are scared to testify,” Ms. Pearson of the Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao
Witnesses won't come forward if there is a ‘second Maguindanao massacre' of witnesses and their families.
Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) - Philippine authorities should act swiftly to protect eyewitnesses to the November 2009 massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao province on Mindanao, and to protect their families as well, Human Rights Watch said today.
Concerns for the safety of witnesses are highlighted by the killings of two relatives of witnesses and the shooting of a third; the large number of police, military, and paramilitary personnel implicated in the massacre who remain at large; and lax security measures that allowed one suspect to escape detention, Human Rights Watch said.
"Witnesses won't come forward if there is a ‘second Maguindanao massacre' of witnesses and their families," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The government needs to act quickly to protect witnesses and their relatives, and to arrest and securely detain the remaining suspects."
On November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, dozens of gunmen stopped a convoy that was en route to file Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu's candidacy for the upcoming Maguindanao gubernatorial elections. The gunmen summarily executed at least 57 people, including Mangudadatu family members and supporters, bystanders, and more than 30 media workers.
Those charged with the killings include members of the local governing family, the Ampatuans, together with police, military, and paramilitary personnel. Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the Maguindanao governor, Andal Ampatuan Sr., is the lead suspect in the case. He was charged on December 1, 2009; he is in custody while his bail hearing continues.
Several eyewitnesses have come forward to testify about the massacre.
On February 21, 2010, the elder brother of one suspect-turned-witness, Police Officer 1 Rainier Ebus, was shot multiple times in Datu Piang and severely wounded. According to credible sources that could not be confirmed, Ampatuan's men had offered Ebus 5 million pesos (over US$100,000) to recant his witness statement. The brother was shot after he refused to do so.
Credible sources also told Human Rights Watch that another witness was offered 25 million pesos (over US$500,000) to recant his signed witness statement. He refused. Within weeks of testifying in court, two of his family members were shot dead. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) told Human Rights Watch that local police were investigating these crimes.
A member of the Ampatuan paramilitary forces told Human Rights Watch that the Ampatuans have placed a bounty on the heads of those who cooperate with investigators to testify against the Ampatuan family. He said that in late 2009, men linked to the Ampatuan family ordered him to kill one of the men involved in the massacre. The paramilitary force member said he escaped the Ampatuan fold after hearing that he was the next to be killed. He said he has learned that there is a 2 million peso (over US$40,000) bounty on his head.
Human Rights Watch urged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to thoroughly and transparently investigate these killings and acts of intimidation against witnesses. To the extent that jailed Ampatuan family members are implicated, the NBI should investigate the Philippine authorities responsible for their custody.
The Justice Department, on February 9, filed charges against 197 people for 57 counts of murder on February 9, 2010. Arrest warrants have yet to be issued due to judicial delays, though some of those implicated are in custody charged with other crimes.
Of the 197 charged, 63 are police officers. Forty-nine of these police officers are under "restrictive custody"; the remaining 14 are "absent without leave." A Criminal Investigation and Detection Group spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that firearms are confiscated from police officers under restrictive custody and the officers are largely restricted to the police camp, though they can leave under guard. They remain on active duty and can be assigned administrative tasks.
Human Rights Watch questioned the effectiveness of this custody status since at least one police suspect, Anwar Masukat, escaped restrictive custody in late December or early January, reportedly swore an affidavit recanting his witness statement, and is now missing. Masukat had initially provided a signed statement implicating Ampatuan Jr. as the leader of the Maguindanao massacre. In his new statement, he pointed instead to another police witness as the massacre's mastermind. The Investigation Group spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that Masukat escaped restrictive custody while en route from Camp Crame, in Manila, to his unit in Maguindanao.
The threat to witnesses is highlighted by the government's lax detention of a suspect in custody, Human Rights Watch said. Retired Police Superintendent Piang Adam, the former Maguindanao provincial police director, escaped from the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Jail in Tacurong City between February 16 and 17. The Sultan Kudarat provincial police director, Senior Superintendent Suharto Teng Tocao, is a relative of Adam, and his jail guard, Taha Kadalum, was his cousin and has since been charged in relation to the escape.
Following this escape, the Philippine police chief, Director General Jesus Verzosa, ordered tighter security on all jail facilities and noted the need for a review of security systems and procedures. Human Rights Watch called on Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno to carry out an urgent review of the detention arrangements of all those implicated in the Maguindanao massacre and publicly report on the findings and measures taken.
Human Rights Watch stressed the need for stronger witness protection measures to ensure, in keeping with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's statement of November 25, 2009, that "the perpetrators [of the Maguindanao massacre] will not escape justice."
The United Nations special envoy on extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston, recommended in 2007 that the government ensure protection for persons who testify in killings for as long as they are at risk, and that they be provided housing and other assistance to ensure their security and well-being. Human Rights Watch made similar recommendations in its 2007 and 2009 reports about extrajudicial killings. None of these recommendations have been implemented.
Human Rights Watch called on the Arroyo administration to provide sufficient funding to ensure adequate protection for witnesses and their families, and urged the government to promptly investigate acts of witness intimidation and killing, and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. Security forces and the Justice Department should take the measures needed to protect their physical safety, including relocation where necessary, and ensure that witnesses and their families are afforded appropriate housing. Witnesses who are themselves implicated in the killings should be appropriately - and safely - detained prior to trial.
Human Rights Watch also urged the Philippine Congress to increase significantly the penalties for intimidating or assaulting a witness. Currently, intimidating a witness incurs a fine of not more than 3,000 pesos (US$65) or imprisonment of six months to one year, or both. Offenses against intimidating witnesses should also be expanded to include offenses against their relatives.
"President Arroyo has a long way to go to live up to her promise that the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre do not escape justice," Pearson said. "The legacy of her administration will depend in great measure on the outcome of this horrific case."
MANILA--THE 60-MAN INTERNATIONal Monitoring Team (IMT) overseeing the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is expected to return to Mindanao Sunday after both sides resumed peace talks last month.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, chief government negotiator, said in a recent interview the IMT members would come from Brunei, Libya, Japan and Malaysia.
The European Union, Qatar, Indonesia and Norway had also been invited to join the team, Seguis said.
The IMT, which has a one-year renewable mandate, would be redeployed on the first week of March, he added.
The Japanese Embassy in Manila said two Japanese development experts—Tomonori Kikuchi, first secretary of the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines, and Yusuke Mori, second secretary of the embassy, would be sent to IMT headquarters in Cotabato City Sunday.
Both experts would be working on the socioeconomic development aspect of the IMT, including assessment of the needs for reconstruction and development, monitoring of development projects in the former conflict-affected areas, and the formulation of a comprehensive development plan.
“Japan has recognized the significance of the Mindanao peace process and contributed to its progress through various assistance projects called J-BIRD and participation in the International Contact Group among others,” the Japanese Embassy said in a statement.
Seguis said a 20-man team from Malaysia was also expected to arrive today.
On Feb. 17, an eight-man IMT advance team headed by Lt. Gen. Datuk Raja Mohammed Affendi bin Raja Mohamed, chief of staff of the Malaysian Armed Forces headquarters, arrived in Manila before proceeding to Mindanao to conduct an ocular inspection.
REINA REGENTE, the Philippines — Tata Uy and a dozen members of his militia were milling around their base, a bullet-pocked mosque on a hill overlooking forests and farmland here in the southern Philippines. Mr. Uy pointed to a spot a couple of miles away where gunmen loyal to his uncle were holed up.
Jes Aznar for The New York Times
A member of a militia formed by Tata Uy, whose family owns farmland in Reina Regente, in the southern Philippines.
As one of his men patrolled the area on a water buffalo, a rifle slung over his shoulder, Mr. Uy (pronounced OO-ey) explained that he and his uncle had a falling out four years ago. But skirmishes escalated to full-blown fighting last year after he made it clear that he intended to run against his uncle, a local mayor, in an election this year.
The decision was not an easy one. “He’s my uncle, after all,” said Mr. Uy, 40, adding that it was not made any easier by his uncle’s vow to kill him.
He has now built up his militia to 40 men. “If it weren’t for my private army,” he said, “I’d be dead by now.”
Mr. Uy is a rare politician in the Philippines, one who does not deny having a private army. As the country prepares for nationwide elections in May, politicians are expected to use these militias, as they have in the past, to safeguard their interests, intimidate rivals, rig votes and perpetuate the control of family dynasties throughout the country.
But even as half a dozen political candidates have been assassinated throughout the country in recent weeks, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has pledged to eradicate private armies by Election Day. Critics are skeptical, though, not just because previous governments have failed at similar attempts.
They say they doubt Mrs. Arroyo’s sincerity, pointing to her government’s past support of private armies and saying that she was only responding to the international outcry over one of the country’s worst acts of political violence. In November, in a town not far from here, militiamen loyal to the powerful Ampatuan clan — staunch Arroyo allies — massacred 57 people, including journalists and relatives of a political rival to the Ampatuans. The clan’s patriarch and several of his sons were indicted this month.
Private armies have flourished especially here on Mindanao, the country’s southernmost major island, where Muslim and Communist insurgents have battled the military for decades and American soldiers have hunted for members of Abu Sayyaf, the terrorist group, since 2002. Philippine governments have supported local politicians with private armies to help suppress insurgents and Islamic radicals, and these conflicts often become inextricably linked with clan warfare.
An independent commission established to disband the private armies has identified 74 of them, though other government officials have said twice as many exist. They operate in areas that are home to 7.8 million registered voters, out of a national total of 50 million, said Dante Jimenez, a member of the commission.
“If we don’t contain the private armies, there is the risk that there won’t be fair elections in these hot spots,” Mr. Jimenez said. “In a tight presidential election, the private armies in one region could tip the balance.”
That is precisely what is believed to have happened in 2004 when Mrs. Arroyo was in a close race for the presidency. Widespread fraud occurred here in the southern province of Maguindanao, the fief of the Ampatuans, the clan accused of being behind the November massacre.
Here in Reina Regente, a barangay or village in Maguindanao, the feud between the nephew and uncle began four years ago, according to the nephew, news media reports, local politicians and officials with a neutral cease-fire monitoring group. The uncle, Samir Uy, could not be reached for comment.
Early last decade, the uncle appointed the nephew as chief of another district village — technically an elected position.
“In Mindanao, the mayors choose the barangay chiefs and expect them to follow orders,” said Don Mangansakan, 31, the vice mayor of Pikit, a nearby town. “Tata didn’t listen to the wishes of his uncle, who got rid of him. It’s as simple as that.”
Further defying his uncle, Tata Uy ran unsuccessfully for chief in Reina Regente, his hometown, where his family is the largest landowner, with 124 acres. He said he began forming his own militia, spending $65,000 to buy 45 weapons over the years and recruiting 40 men, including some who worked on his land.
Such a force would rank as medium-size, said Mr. Jimenez of the commission. There are only a handful of truly large private armies — like the 400- to 600-member force belonging to the Ampatuans — all of them concentrated here in the south.
Experts say private armies are typically composed of moonlighting police officers, soldiers, Muslim rebels and average citizens. In 2006, Mrs. Arroyo issued an executive order that made it easier for local politicians to form private armies, or “civilian volunteer organizations,” to battle Muslim insurgents. But one result was that it also allowed ambitious clans to build up militias rapidly for their own use.
Here, family feuds not only become a proxy for the battle between the military and Muslim insurgents, but also fuel that conflict. In Mr. Uy’s case, he began developing ties with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group that advocates secession, though he says he is not part of the insurgency. His uncle has been allied with the government and the military.
In May, after Mr. Uy unequivocally stated his goal of unseating his uncle as the local mayor, his tractor ended up at the bottom of a river. That message was soon followed by two weeks of fighting with guns and mortars, pitting his uncle’s private army and the military against the nephew’s militia and hundreds of fighters from the Moro rebel group.
Most of Reina Regente’s 500 families fled, joining the thousands of refugees from other clashes in overcrowded camps.
Nowadays, Tata Uy said, he is preparing for the start of the campaign next month and is continuing to buy weapons with his farming profits. He said he had heard about the president’s campaign to ban private armies. “It’s a good idea,” he said, pausing, “but it’s not going to work.”
Critics of Mrs. Arroyo, who cannot run again because of term limits, said she had rejected demands to rescind her executive order easing the creation of militias, raising questions about her effort against private armies.
“If she was serious, she would have tried to do something about the private armies sooner,” said Alex B. Brillantes Jr., a political scientist at the University of the Philippines in Manila. “It’s too little, too late.”
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lifted martial law in a southern province where 57 people were massacred late last month, but unrest in the southern Philippines continued.
A group of armed men stormed a jail on the southern island of Basilan on Sunday morning, smashing through a wall to free at least 31 inmates, authorities said. One attacker and a guard were killed.
The jailbreak -- which occurred more than 60 miles from last month's massacre -- underscored the lawlessness in a region tormented by bandits, private armies and insurgents, including Communists and al Qaeda-linked Muslim separatists.
There was some good news Sunday: Officials said gunmen released 47 hostages who had been held in a jungle hideout elsewhere in the south. A group of around 15 abducted the hostages from a village on Thursday, but freed them after government negotiators agreed not to arrest the gunmen for the abductions or for past criminal activities, the Associated Press reported.
The decision to lift martial law late Saturday in another zone of the southern Philippines also suggested tensions there may be easing. But the area's problems are far from resolved, and analysts warn there could be further outbreaks of violence in the months ahead.
Mrs. Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao province earlier this month to enable the military to disarm suspected militia members after an apparent feud between rival political clans erupted into a massacre on Nov. 23. The move allowed police and soldiers to make arrests without warrants.
Opposition politicians criticized the decision to impose martial law, which they feared could lead to widespread civil-rights violations and hand too much power to Mrs. Arroyo's government ahead of national and local elections next May.
The Philippines Supreme Court had ordered the government to respond by Monday to several petitions challenging the legal basis for the move.
On Sunday, government officials said they felt they had made enough progress to relax their grip after executing several missions in Maguindanao in recent days.
Soldiers raided properties controlled by members of the Ampatuan clan, which is accused of leading the Nov. 23 massacre that killed 30 journalists and others linked to the rival Mangudadatu family. The government also uncovered large supplies of arms, including assault weapons and armored personnel carriers.
Associated Press
Prison guards cover a hole after armed men knocked down a concrete wall and barged into a jail, freeing at least 31 inmates.
In the past several weeks, authorities have replaced the province's entire 1,000-person police force, and have arrested as many as 600 suspected militants, including some the government said may have been plotting a rebellion.
Prosecutors have filed multiple murder charges against Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor, for allegedly leading the massacre. His father, former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., and other clan members have also been arrested and charged with rebellion.
The family maintains its innocence.
"We set specific objectives and we felt we had accomplished those objectives," said Cerge Remonde, a spokesman for Mrs. Arroyo, of lifting martial law.
He said a state of emergency, which allows security forces to set up road checkpoints and seize weapons from civilians, would remain in place in the zone.
The region remains restive. Officials have been targeting as many as 2,400 armed Ampatuan loyalists, many of whom may still be at large.
Analysts have said it could take months, if not years, to pacify a region where the government has long supplied weapons to family-based militias to help them hem in Communist and Muslim insurgencies.
MANILA — Gunmen took 75 people hostage at an elementary school in the southern Philippines on Thursday, later releasing 27, including all the children, officials said.
The standoff, about 500 miles south of Manila in a restive region that has been the scene of recent violence, began when 15 to 20 assailants took the hostages after police officials tried to serve an arrest warrant on one of their leaders, said Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, an army spokesman.
The leader, identified as Ondo Perez, is suspected of heading a criminal organization called the Perez Group and is wanted for the murder of a resident of the town of Prosperidad, in Agusan del Sur Province on the southeastern island of Mindanao.
Senior Superintendent Nestor Fajura, operations chief of the Philippine police in the region, told ABS-CBN television that Mr. Perez and his group took the hostages at a school in Prosperidad to prevent his arrest. Mr. Fajura said that the abductors were demanding the withdrawal of the murder charge against Mr. Perez and a halt to police and military operations against the group.
The hostage takers initially released 17 children and an older woman, Major Cabangbang said. Also among the hostages were a teacher and two employees of a logging company, he said. Police officials have not yet established the identities or the conditions of the remaining hostages, he said.
Early Friday, The Associated Press reported the release of nine more hostages, eight women and one man, reducing the number of captives to 48.
Major Cabangbang said negotiators had been sent to the village to try to persuade the men to surrender. “The situation remains fluid at this point,” he said by telephone.
Mr. Perez is a former member of a paramilitary group that the military armed and trained to help in counterinsurgency operations, police officials said.
Such groups have often been accused of criminality and human rights violations.
A recent massacre on Maguindanao Province, also in Mindanao, of 57 people — most of them journalists and media workers — was attributed to militiamen who the authorities say were under the command of Andal Ampatuan Jr., a scion of the province’s most influential family.
Two things may help to explain the violent power politics in this impoverished part of the southern Philippines: the red-roofed and high-walled mansions that have long dominated the center of this town, and the men in uniform carrying automatic weapons who guarded them.
The opulent mansions, the only ones here in the capital of Maguindanao Province, are owned by the family of Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the political dynasty that has ruled this part of the island of Mindanao for much of this decade.
Today, the mansions are surrounded by soldiers and police officers, while family members face multiple charges of murder for alleged involvement in a massacre that shocked a country seemingly inured to political violence.
On Nov. 23, a convoy of vehicles — carrying the wife, three sisters and an aunt of Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of a small town nearby, as well as supporters, journalists and lawyers — was stopped by dozens of armed men at a checkpoint outside Shariff Aguak. At gunpoint, the vehicles, along with another car that had happened to be behind them, were forced down a dirt road to a windblown hilltop.
The armed men — who the authorities say were working for the Ampatuans — then shot and hacked 57 people to death. Some of the women, investigators say, were raped and sexually mutilated.
“They were so confident with their power that they carried out something like this and believed they could get away with it,” said Kim Bagundang, a Maguindanao resident and president of the Liguasan Youth Association for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit organization.
The reason for the massacre was clear, the authorities said. Mr. Mangudadatu’s relatives and supporters had been on their way to file his candidacy papers for governor of Maguindanao in elections next year — a direct challenge to the Ampatuans, who have ruled virtually unchallenged.
The Ampatuans’ control of Maguindanao is almost absolute. Most of the province’s 36 towns are run by mayors and deputy mayors who are either sons, grandsons, cousins, nephews, in-laws or close allies of the senior Mr. Ampatuan, according to a study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Since he became governor in 1998, Mr. Ampatuan has carved out at least eight towns from existing ones and named all of them after his sons and other relatives. The entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which is composed of five predominantly Muslim provinces, including Maguindanao, is run by Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, one of his sons.
The Ampatuans’ control of Maguindanao was enforced with guns and a culture of fear in towns governed by the family, residents and the authorities said. Many residents are afraid to talk at all about the Ampatuans. “No, no, no,” a resident in the town of Datu Unsay said when asked to comment on the massacre.
“People here live in fear,” a driver who lives in nearby Cotabato City, said of Shariff Aguak. “No one will dare go against the Ampatuans.”
One factor in what experts have called the “culture of impunity” that the Ampatuans have enjoyed in Maguindanao may be suggested by the enormous billboards erected at infrastructure projects around the province lauding the accomplishments of the family. Almost all of them also thank President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for her help in making the projects possible — highlighting the political connection between the Ampatuans and the central government in Manila.
“The Ampatuan family dynasty has backed President Arroyo since 2001, and its rise to power is likewise attributed to Mrs. Arroyo’s support,” said Bobby Tuazon, an analyst at the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, a Manila nonprofit organization that has studied the political dynamics of the provinces. The Ampatuans, he said, were “an extension of Arroyo’s political base.”
In the 2004 elections, Mrs. Arroyo won resounding victories in Maguindanao; in at least three towns, her opponent, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., got no votes at all, according to the official results. An independent election monitor found widespread fraud in the election that year.
For the Ampatuans, as well as for the chiefs of other impoverished provinces, there are very lucrative reasons for chasing political patronage in Manila.
Maguindanao is the second-poorest province in the Philippines, according to government statistics. It is mainly agricultural and has no industry to speak of. What it does have, however, is a lot of voters who can be delivered to national candidates in return for tax revenues and political patronage that can keep local politicians firmly in power.
Francisco Lara, at the Development Studies Institute of the London School of Economics, says the potential for making money from politics has given rise to a class of “ruthless political entrepreneurs” in the Philippines.
“Political office has become more attractive due to the billions of pesos in I.R.A. remittances that electoral victory provides,” Mr. Lara said, referring to the internal revenue allotment, the share of national taxes for local governments. “The ‘winner-takes-all’ nature of local electoral struggles in Muslim Mindanao also means that competition is costlier and bloodier.”
And often more corrupt, according to Mr. Tuazon and other experts.
Figures from the Department of Budget and Management show that Maguindanao’s overall revenue in 2006 was 603 million pesos, or about $13 million — of which 570 million pesos came from national taxes. At least a third of these funds went to personnel and operating expenses. According to the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism, which has closely examined the issue, such funds are a major source of corruption within the Philippine bureaucracy.
The Commission on Audit’s annual reports on Maguindanao have consistently highlighted deficiencies in bookkeeping. For instance, in its 2008 audit report, the commission found that it could not ascertain the validity of the provincial accountant’s claim that the province had more than 107 million pesos deposited in banks. It also could not verify the existence of properties and assets worth 345 million pesos that the province said it had.
In 2006, the position of the Ampatuans was strengthened by Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to allow local government chiefs to set up armed militias to support the police and the military in their fight against criminals and insurgents.
Abhoud Syed Lingga, executive director of the Institute for Bangsamoro Studies in Cotabato City, who has studied the rise of the militias, said local chiefs across the country had used the order to create their own private armies.
The Ampatuans, he said, did so with more enthusiasm than anyone else. The police and military estimate that the Ampatuans employ between 400 and 600 of these armed men.
Up to now, the military has been supportive of the Ampatuans, Mr. Lingga said, because the clan actively fought the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the insurgent rebels fighting for a Muslim homeland in Mindanao.
All that changed on Nov. 23, when the armed men who the authorities say were working for the Ampatuans — among them police officers and militiamen — killed the 57 people on the hillside.
When soldiers, who had been alerted about the abduction, arrived at the mass graves — at a site overlooking the town of Ampatuan — several bodies remained unburied. Some were still in vehicles; in one van the driver was slumped, dead, on the steering wheel.
The backhoe used to dig the graves, its claw stuck in the ground, was still running — a “mute witness to this atrocity,” as Felicisimo Khu, the police superintendent who oversaw the recovery of the bodies, put it. Printed in black ink on the side of the backhoe, as on most of the equipment at infrastructure projects around Maguindanao, was the name of Andal Ampatuan Sr.
According to Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina of the Manila police, who serves as spokesman for the investigation, the primary suspect in the massacre, Andal Ampatuan Jr., was present when the armed men stopped the convoy. According to the Justice Department, he ordered his men to carry out the slaughter. He did this, investigators said, in full view of witnesses, some of whom have agreed to testify.
Mr. Ampatuan Jr., who is in custody and has been charged with 25 counts of murder, has denied the allegations. This week, the authorities said they had filed rebellion charges against more members of the Ampatuans, days after the government put the whole of Maguindanao Province under martial law. Raids have been conducted by the police and the military in which at least 1,500 firearms and more than half a million rounds of ammunition have been found. On Wednesday, the police said they had named 161 suspects in the massacre.
Andal Ampatuan Sr., his family members and lawyers for the family did not respond to requests for interviews.
With the Ampatuans on the ropes, power in this province appears likely to shift to the family of Mr. Mangudadatu, the Buluan mayor — which has controlled the neighboring province of Sultan Kudarat for years.
Mr. Mangudadatu, 41, has brothers and uncles and cousins holding local positions in Maguindanao and in Sultan Kudarat Province. Unlike Andal Ampatuan Sr., however, not one of his eight children is in power, Mr. Mangudadatu said in an interview.
That may change next year. “I want my eldest son,” he said, “to run as vice mayor to replace me.”
Just days after the massacre, Mr. Mangudadatu filed his candidacy papers for Maguindanao governor and said that only death could stop him from running. At this point, he seems certain to win.
On the day he filed his papers, he was accompanied by Gilberto Teodoro, who will be Mrs. Arroyo’s candidate for president in the election next year. Mr. Mangudadatu will run as a candidate of Mrs. Arroyo’s party, Lakas-Kampi, the same party that helped nurture the Ampatuans for years.
Philippine troops moved in on the southern strongholds of about 4,000 government-armed militiamen loyal to the Ampatuans, the military said Thursday, The Associated Press reported from Manila.
Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, a spokesman for the armed forces, said the possibility of clashes with the militiamen had risen since a deadline for them to surrender passed and troops headed to their hide-outs in at least seven townships of southern Maguindanao Province.
“We have started moving in and positioning our troops, but there is no actual firefight yet,” Colonel Brawner said, adding that the operation was meant to pressure the militiamen to surrender.
The operation was started after the militiamen failed to heed the warning on thousands of leaflets dropped by helicopters Tuesday for them to surrender in 24 hours.
More leaflets were dropped Thursday, Colonel Brawner said.
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MANILA, 22 September 2009 (IRIN) - Food security will continue to remain a key concern for thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) on the southern island of Mindanao, despite moves towards possible peace talks, says the World Food Programme (WFP)."Our main concern is that those who remain IDPs receive the required assistance they need, while those who are able to return to their homes get the same," Stephen Anderson, country representative for the UN food agency, told IRIN in Manila.His comments come a week after the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) agreed to resume peace talks, brokered by Malaysia.The announcement prompted renewed hope that many IDPs might soon be able to return home, say observers.Negotiations collapsed in August 2008 after the country's Supreme Court declared a preliminary accord on an expanded Muslim autonomous region as unconstitutional, prompting fresh clashes and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the decades-old conflict between government forces and the 12,000-strong MILF.While many IDPs have since returned home, according to government sources, more than 250,000 remain displaced due to the conflict and are now living in evacuation centres or with host families, the vast majority - 91 percent - in central Maguindanao Province.Early recovery and rehabilitationBut even if security does improve and more people return, many have lost everything, including their homes, property and livelihoods, and will continue to need assistance."If people have been out of their homes for over a year, it's not as though you just return, turn on the light and resume your life," Anderson said, citing the importance of early recovery and rehabilitation efforts."It will be a big challenge to get that geared up," he said, referring to the need for food-for-work programmes and other measures."This protracted period of displacement has put immense pressure on people's livelihoods. It certainly has had a food security impact," he said, noting the difficult time they will have in rebuilding their lives.For at least a few months they will need continued assistance, as well as regular monitoring thereafter, the WFP official said.Poor indicatorsYet conditions in many areas were already precarious before the resumption of the latest violence last year.The longstanding conflict has severely affected the health and nutrition of the people of Mindanao, where infant and maternal mortality rates are 30 percent and 80 percent higher respectively than national levels, and one-third of all children under five are stunted, according to WFP.Educational indicators are far below the national average, with only 33 percent of children completing primary school, compared with 67 percent in the rest of the country.Moreover, various assessments show that 40 percent of parents do not send their children to school, with lack of food cited as a contributing factor, according to WFP.Since August 2008, the UN food agency has supported the government-led relief response, providing 17,500MT of food assistance to affected families.At the height of the displacement, WFP reached some 89,000 families or more than 530,000 people in August/September 2008.ds/mw
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