Backhoe operator to be jailed with other massacre suspects

MANILA, Philippines - A judge handling the Maguindanao massacre case has ordered a backhoe operator, who previously offered to turn state’s witness, to be detained with the rest of the other suspects in the case in the Quezon City Jail-Annex (QCJA) at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes ordered this week the transfer of Bong Andal from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame to the QCJA.

This was despite Andal’s plea that his life would be in danger if he is detained with the people he identified as perpetrators of the Nov. 23, 2009 bloodbath.

The PNP, in an earlier motion filed before the court, also expressed its concern for Andal’s safety.

Custodial Center chief Superintendent Cesar Magsino said in a separate motion that Andal’s security “is of vital importance and his testimonies bear great weight for the successful prosecution” of the case.

“His (transfer) to Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility, if ever he will be detained together with the other accused, might endanger his life and create hostility to other co-accused,” the officer said.

But in an order released Wednesday, Solis-Reyes said there is no valid reason for Andal to remain in Camp Crame as the prosecution panel already withdrew its intention to utilize him as a state witness.

She ordered the chief of the PNP Custodial Center to transfer the custody of Andal to the QCJA in Camp Bagong Diwa.

In withdrawing its intention to utilize Andal as a state witness, the prosecutors said they no longer wish to present Andal as a witness as his statements had already been covered by the testimony of suspect-turned-state witness Sukarno Badal.

Andal was arrested on Nov. 24, 2012 in Midsayap, North Cotabato in an entrapment operation conducted jointly by the local police and the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion.

He was the alleged backhoe operator who dug the graves of the massacre, which claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media practitioners.

In an exclusive video released by GMA News in June, Andal said the Ampatuans ordered him to “bury the people they had massacred.” He said he dug a big hole near where the victims were shot, and then pushed the bodies and their cars into the pit.

“The Ampatuans… said if I get caught they would kill my parents, my siblings and my children,” he said in the video.