House of massacre witness' pa fired at

AMPATUAN, Maguindanao, Philippines – Unidentified men fired at least a dozen 60-mm mortar projectiles at the house of this town’s mayor, whose son is a prosecution witness in last year’s massacre in the province, wounding at least two of the local executive’s security personnel, last Sunday night, police said.

Superintendent Alex Lineses, provincial police director, said they are convinced that the attackers were also behind the foiled bombing of a Phoenix gasoline station near the residential compound of re-electionist Mayor Zacaria Sangki.

“We are quite sure of that,” Lineses said.

Sangki’s son, Razul, is a key prosecution witness against detained Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the prime suspect in the massacre of more than 50 people, many of them journalists, in Barangay Salman here on Nov. 23 last year.

The mayor, who is related to the Ampatuan clan by blood, owns the gas station where an improvised explosive device was found Sunday night.

Alert workers of the gas station found the bomb, placed in a box, near one of the refilling pumps, and promptly moved it to the middle of the highway as they sought police help.

Responding Army bomb experts managed to deactivate the bomb before it could explode.

Soon after, mortar projectiles rained on Sangki’s residence, leaving two of his security escorts wounded.

Also tagged in the massacre are former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and another son, Zaldy, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Lineses said an extortion ring could be behind the grenade attack last March 17 on the house of Bai Mona Ampatuan, principal of the Shariff Aguak National High School, which left a 30-year-old woman and two minors, all relatives of the Ampatuans, wounded.

Lineses said investigators have identified two suspects in the bombing of the principal’s house.

Lineses said the extortion ring has been demanding P1,000 to P5,000 in monthly “protection money” from teachers in Shariff Aguak town. – With Edith Regalado and Rose Tamayo-Tesoro