MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer of several media workers killed in the November 2009 massacre in Maguindanao reported yesterday that a key witness was murdered last week in Parang, Maguindanao, apparently to stop him from testifying in the multiple murder case filed against members of the Ampatuan clan.
Harry Roque, a lawyer of Centerlaw Philippines, said they received a belated report that an unidentified gunman shot dead witness Suwaid Upham, alias Jessie, last June 14 in Parang.
Upham surfaced last March to apply for admission to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Witness Protection Program but officials of the agency failed to interview the witness despite two scheduled meetings.
The massacre resulted in the killing of 57 people, including the wife of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan, Maguindanao and two of his sisters, two female lawyers and 30 media men who covered the supposed filing of certificate of candidacy of the vice mayor who would run for governor of Maguindanao and challenge a scion of the Ampatuans.
Mangudadatu was elected governor of Maguindanao in the May 10 elections.
The Mangudadatus have blamed the Ampatuans for the killings, specifically pointing to former mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town as the leader of more than 100 armed men who waylaid Mangudadatu’s supporters.
The Ampatuans denied any involvement in the massacre.
Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court is handling the multiple murder charges filed against 197 suspects, including members of the Ampatuan clan, who are all detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.
Quezon City Judge Vivencio Baclig is currently conducting the hearing on the separate rebellion charges filed against the Ampatuans.
Upham had admitted that he was one of seven gunmen who shot and killed the victims.
He identified the other gunmen as Andal Jr., his cousins Kanor Ampatuan, Ban Ampatuan, and Mama Ampatuan, Police Officer 1 Ando Masukat, and a certain Kudja.
The witness also claimed that members of the Ampatuan clan, including former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), ordered the killings.
Upham stated that among the first to be killed was the wife of Mangudadatu and that after the first batch of victims were killed, Andal Jr. ordered all seven gunmen to fire indiscriminately at the other victims, many of whom were still inside their parked vehicles.
Roque said the witness also recounted how the victims pleaded for their lives, and he also identified at least four media members killed in the massacre.
He said Upham was in Manila for two months from March to April this year, but he returned to Mindanao when it became apparent that the DOJ would not give him protection.
Roque said that the first interview was supposed to take place in the office of Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Leila de Lima, but when the witness protection program officials arrived at the CHR, they insisted that the interview of Upham should be conducted at the DOJ.
He said the witness refused to go to the DOJ because he allegedly had information that high-ranking officials of the department were working with the Ampatuans and that acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra would later dismiss the charges against Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan.
Agra dropped the charges against two Ampatuan suspects last April, but was forced to reverse his decision due to public outcry.
In his interview with international television network Al Jazeera, Upham recalled how Andal Jr. allegedly bade farewell to his men before surrendering to authorities a few days after the massacre.
Upham quoted Andal Jr. as saying: “Walang mangyayari sa kaso nila. Kaya ng pera namin silang lahat (Nothing will happen to their case. Our money can buy all of them).”
This developed as ABS-CBNnews.com reported that Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon said that the DOJ will validate and cross-examine the testimonies of a new witness, who is claiming he has inside information on the Maguindanao massacre.
Fadullon said he has ordered the panel prosecuting the Maguindanao massacre case to validate the testimonies of Lakmodin Saliao, who claims he was a trusted assistant of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.
In an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN’s Jorge Cariño, Saliao claimed that he was present in meetings held at the house of Ampatuan Sr., where the clan leaders plotted the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.
He said he was at the side of Ampatuan Sr. during the day of the massacre and overheard the former governor’s radio conversation with his son and namesake Andal Jr.
Fadullon said that after watching Saliao on television, he called the other prosecutors handling the massacre case.
He said they would interview Saliao and subject him to a very thorough validation “if his information is really accurate and if it jibes with the evidence here with us.”
Fadullon, however, said the prosecutors would have to take into consideration the long gap of time before Saliao surfaced, which was seven months after the massacre.
He said that they could not just dismiss Saliao because he is the first real inside man that has expressed willingness to stand witness against members of the Ampatuan clan.
Palace orders arrest of killers of witness
Malacañang has ordered the country’s security forces to go after the perpetrators of the murder of one of the witnesses in the Maguindanao massacre last November.
Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar expressed outrage over the killing of Upham, who had confessed to be one of the gunmen in the multiple murder case.
“We have directed our security forces to take all necessary measures to apprehend the perpetrators, utilizing all the special powers available under the state of emergency that the President declared and continues to maintain in the province,” Olivar said.
Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses, Maguindanao police director, said they have started the investigation and are now coordinating with the family of Upham.
“We are trying to confirm the incident but we have no report yet in our records. I have deployed my intelligence officers to get information and check with the relatives,” said Lineses.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa has directed Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, director of the ARMM police, to double their efforts to prevent crimes from happening in his area of responsibility and secure all personalities with threats.
PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said Verzosa had directed Latag to immediately form a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to investigate and solve the case and to run after all perpetrators through continuous operations.
Espina said Verzosa also wanted quick feedback on the progress of the investigation and conduct of manhunt operations regularly and to relentlessly pursue the case until it is solved with the arrest of the perpetrators and the filing of appropriate cases.
Centerlaw condemned the killing of Upham and blamed President Arroyo and Justice Secretary Agra who refused to provide protection to the witness.
“There is blood on Agra and Mrs. Arroyo’s hands. May they forever be haunted by the souls of Upham and the rest of the victims of the massacre,” Roque said.
“He (Upham) was supposed to be one of our strongest witnesses,” Roque told AFP. “He saw, and participated in, the killings and could have directly named in court those involved.”
In response, Agra said Roque should blame no one but himself for the death of Upham.
“He (Roque) never respected the authority of the public prosecutors. The public prosecutors have control over the private prosecutors, not the other way around,” the DOJ secretary said in a statement.
Agra said Roque never brought Upham to the DOJ for interview and evaluation by the fiscals handling the case, “so how can that person be placed under the witness protection program.”
“Roque even represents the victims and one of the killers,” he added.
Roque warned that Upham’s killing, which he was told occurred last week in Maguindanao, could potentially weaken the case against the Ampatuan family.
US-based Human Rights Watch also said the killing raised doubts about the government’s resolve in seeing justice done in the case.
“Massacre witnesses are dying while the government sits on its hands,” the group’s Asia director Elaine Pearson said in a statement. “This sends the worst possible message to other witnesses thinking of coming forward.”
Roque said Upham had been talking to prosecutors in Manila since February, but went back to Maguindanao after the justice department did not act on his request for protection.
“He went back to Maguindanao when it became apparent the witness protection program would take a while to take him in,” Roque said.
His death comes two months after an uncle of another witness was also shot and killed, in what authorities said was part of a plan to intimidate those speaking out against the Ampatuan clan.
The clan, which has ruled Maguindanao with brutal efficiency for a decade, enjoyed political ties with outgoing President Arroyo, who used the family’s huge private army as a force against separatist rebels. – With Marvin Sy, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Edu Punay