Andal Sr., son tagged in slays by vice mayor

MANILA, Philippines - The first witness to testify against Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. in connection with the Maguindanao massacre said yesterday the father and namesake of the accused was involved in the killings and might have actually ordered them.

Rasul Sangki, Ampatuan town vice mayor, said that while the elder Ampatuan was not at the massacre site, he heard him radioing instructions to his son shortly before the convoy carrying the 57 victims was waylaid.

“Ama, they are here,” Sangki quoted Ampatuan Jr. as telling his father over a hand-held radio in the local dialect. Sangki said he later heard a voice he recognized as the elder Ampatuan’s radioing back also in the local dialect: “You know what to do.”

But as Sangki was recounting the events leading to the massacre before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, a policeman who was supposed to be a prosecution witness recanted and said in an affidavit executed in Davao City that it was Sangki who masterminded the murders.

Sangki’s testimony came on the second day of the trial of Ampatuan Jr.

The Datu Unsay mayor, the only one indicted so far in the massacre, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. His father and several other close relatives have been implicated but not formally charged in the killings. They also face separate charges of rebellion.

The victims in the Nov. 23 carnage were journalists, lawyers as well as the wife and some female relatives of Buluan town Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, who was challenging Ampatuan Jr. for the governorship of Maguindanao in the May elections.

Sangki told the court he witnessed the killings after Ampatuan Jr. summoned him to a road checkpoint where police officers stopped the caravan of the victims.

“I went with him because I was scared,” Sangki said. “If I did not follow him, he might get mad at our family. He is feared in our province.”

He said the victims were ordered at gunpoint to lay face down and then were divested of money, cell phones and TV cameras.

They were then herded back into their cars and led to a hilltop clearing several kilometers away, Sangki said.

As gunshots rang out, the victims pleaded for their lives, some on their knees and women screamed, he said.

One of the journalists, Jimmy Palak, pleaded with Ampatuan to spare his life, Sangki said.

Armed with a shotgun, Ampatuan shot him as well as Mangudadatu’s sister Eden and wife Gennalyn.

“They finished them to make sure they were dead,” Sangki testified.

After the slaughter, Sangki said that Ampatuan Jr. told him to return to the checkpoint “and tell the people they saw and heard nothing.”

Meanwhile, Mangudadatu said he didn’t walk out of the hearing at Camp Crame but was asked to leave so he wouldn’t hear Sangki’s testimony. Mangudadatu said he himself is a witness in the case.

About face

In Davao City, Anwar Dimaudtang Masukat of the 1508th Provincial Police Mobile Group in Maguindanao recanted his earlier statement accusing Ampatuan Jr. of leading the massacre and said it was Sangki who masterminded the murders.

Masukat presented his affidavit of recantation at a press conference called by Philip Pantojan, one of the lawyers of the Ampatuans.

Pantojan denied he had anything to do with Masukat’s affidavit.

Masukat claimed he signed his first affidavit at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group headquarters in Camp Crame on Dec. 12 because he was just forced to do so by a certain SPO2 Larry Diaz and lawyer Armado Fabros.

Masukat said that during interrogation, he constantly mentioned Sangki and several militia members as the ones who blocked and stopped the victims’ convoy at a checkpoint in Sitio Malating, Barangay Malansay in the morning of Nov. 23.

“And that Vice Mayor Sangki and his CVOs (civilian volunteer organization) manhandled and beat with the butts of their guns the passengers of the vehicles of the convoy, and further that I never reached the crime scene at Sitio Sanyag, Barangay Salmag, Ampatuan were not alleged in my counter-affidavit and I noticed its absence only when the affidavit was presented to me by SPO2 Diaz and Atty. Fabros for my signature,” Masukat said in his latest affidavit.

The witness said he initially refused to sign the first affidavit but Fabros and Diaz threatened to include him in the murder charges.

“That if I refused them, the CIDG will detain and will not release me until I will be convicted of murder. They will however set me free if I listen to them,” Masukat said.

“Under these obtaining circumstances, I took heed of their insistence forcing me to sign the affidavit in Tagalog on Dec. 12, 2009 and the English version on Dec. 23, 2009,” his affidavit read.

Another affidavit by Sangki’s sister, Amina Sangki Ampatuan, dated Jan. 11 supported Masukat’s latest claim.

“During our talk, Rasul told me that he indeed knew of the plan to kill the Mangudadatus as early as Nov. 19, 2009 and that there is no other choice but to point to the Ampatuans, including my husband Bahnarin and Mayor Unsay Ampatuan as participants to spare him and our father, Zacaria, from suspicion of being part of the group that actually killed the 57 persons,” Amina said.

Amina said Rasul was a user of cocaine and shabu “which has affected the way he thinks and acts.”

“Rasul’s violent nature has also caused some of our relatives, including myself, to keep away from him. This is also why it took me a long time to say everything I know about the crime, who actually participated in that crime, and why Rasul was part of it yet narrated lies about the Ampatuans,” she said.

“It pains me to make public all these things about my brother, but I have to for the sake of my innocent husband and my children,” she said.

The massacre is considered the world’s deadliest single attack on media workers. The carnage has sparked international outrage, prompting President Arroyo to briefly impose martial law in Maguindanao to crack down on the powerful clan - a key political ally - and its private army.

Arroyo’s political backing of the clan, which helped her win crucial votes during the 2004 elections, had allowed the Ampatuans to maintain a long-standing iron grip on Maguindanao, the International Crisis Group, a prominent think tank, said.

Mrs. Arroyo’s officials have acknowledged her close alliance with the Ampatuans but said that did not authorize them to commit crimes.

Meanwhile, a regional police official in Cagayan de Oro City said the retraining and reorientation program for the 28 policemen from Maguindanao sent there is proceeding smoothly despite reports that some of them may not be qualified to be members of the Philippine National Police.

P/Supt. Jomaira Estrada said the 28 policemen are currently undergoing a debriefing and re-training program at the Special Training Unit-10 facility in Damilag, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon before they are reassigned to the different police units in the region’s five provinces.

Freedom down

The massacre has nudged freedom on a downward spiral in the Philippines, said Freedom House, a Washington-based non-government organization that promotes the growth of freedom worldwide.

In its latest assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties throughout the world, Freedom House for the fourth year in a row rated the Philippines as a “partly free” democracy and for the first time indicated a downward trend arrow in the country’s scorecard.

It attributed the downward trend to a general decline in the rule of law in the greater Mindanao region, and specifically the massacre of 57 journalists, lawyers and other civilians on their way to register a candidate in upcoming elections.

The Freedom in the World 2010 report released on Tuesday showed the Philippines scored four points in political rights and three points in civil liberties. One point represents the best score and seven points the worst score.

The Philippines was rated a free democracy from 2002 to 2005 and had a political score of two and a civil liberty score of three.

It was downgraded to a partly free democracy in 2006 because of credible allegations of massive electoral fraud, corruption, and government intimidation of political opposition. A partly free country has limited respect for political rights and civil liberties. With Sandy Araneta, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro, JB Deveza, Jose Katigbak, AP