Rights group to Noy: Ampatuan trial progress nil

MANILA, Philippines - An international rights group said Thursday that President Aquino's administration has done "next to nothing" against private armies, believed to be responsible in killings of members of the media in the country.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued the statement a day before the 3rd anniversary of the November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province.

A private army being maintained by the powerful Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao carried out the brutal massacre of the victims, including media workers and supporters of a rival political clan.

The HRW said that there has been no progress in the three-year quest for justice for the massacre victims.

HRW Asia director Brad Adams raised concern in the “slow pace” of the trial and authorities’ failure to arrest nearly a hundred suspects, posing risks to the safety of witnesses to the crime.

“The larger problem is that the Aquino administration has done next to nothing to disband the rest of the country’s private armies,” Adams said in a statement, reminding President Benigno Aquino III to fulfill his promise to disarm private armies.

The Maguindanao massacre has been branded as the "worst in recent Philippine history” as it ended the lives of not only of 20 family members and supporters of gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangundadatu but also of 32 media practitioners and six passersby.

Senior members of the Ampatuan family and collaborators were charged and arrested for the murders while others remained at large.

“Of the 197 identified suspects, only 99 have been arrested. Of that number, 81 have been indicted,” Adams recounted.

Relatives of victims and witnesses who came forward alleged that they received threats and even bribes from Ampatuan supporters.

Legal counsels of Mangundadatu also said in a previous report that three other witnesses have already been eliminated.

The group said that around 2,000 to 5,000 militia belong to the Ampatuans’ government-supported private army, the formation of which is protected under Executive Order 546, signed into law in 2004 by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“The Maguindanao Massacre brought to light the dangers posed by private armies, militias, and paramilitaries in the Philippines, but the administration of President Benigno Aquino III has not seriously addressed the problem,” the group said, urging government to revoke the order.

“With one stroke of a pen, he can make good on his commitment for the good of all Filipinos,” Adams added.

The Supreme Court rejected the petition for a live broadcast of the trial in early November this year.