COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday refuted insinuations that it is coddling suspects in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre, which left 58 people dead, more than half of them media workers.
Von Al-Haq, spokesman of the MILF’s military arm, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), said harboring fugitives and terrorists is against their July 1997 General Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities with the national government.
Al-Haq also denied reports that many of the massacre suspects, among them Bahnarin Ampatuan, a grandson of detained former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., have already joined the MILF.
Al-Haq said MILF forces in Central Mindanao, through the joint ceasefire committee, are just as ready to help work out the arrest of massacre suspects if they are found in any area covered by the ceasefire.
The Maguindanao Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) is planning to enlist the help of the government-MILF ceasefire committee in protecting the memorials at the massacre site.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who chairs the PPOC, said vandals and thieves have swooped down on the massacre site at Salman area in Barangay Masalay, Ampatuan town.
Three solar-powered overhead lamps worth P83,000 have been stolen from the site, he reported.
Mangudadatu said he has ordered the provincial police to formulate a plan to secure the site, which has been transformed into a shrine as a reminder of the country’s worst election-related violence.
The massacre site is about two kilometers away from a roadside detachment of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.
“These attacks by vandals and burglars were in total disrespect to the memories of the people who perished in that massacre,” Mangudadatu said.
Thieves have also carted away the GI roofing sheets on a makeshift shelter also within the site.
Mangudadatu has constructed a bigger multi-purpose covered structure several meters away from the main monument.
The governor lost his wife Genalyn in the killing. Escorted by relatives and journalists, she was to bring her husband’s certificate of candidacy for governor at the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak town when armed men flagged them down, herded them at the Salman area and there, mowed them with assault rifles and machineguns.
Mangudadatu said he is visiting the massacre site today to light candles and pray for the victims.
Mangudadatu said he is also appealing to the judiciary to reconsider a recent ruling prohibiting live media coverage of the proceedings on the massacre case.
“We want justice. We are yearning for justice,” he said.
Mangudadatu is seeking a second term under the banner of the administration’s Liberal Party, of which he is the provincial chairman.
The newly installed commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Ronnie Ordoyo, said they have fielded hundreds of combatants around the massacre site to ensure a peaceful commemoration of the third anniversary of the incident today.
Ordoyo said all of their security preparations are being closely coordinated with the MILF through the government’s ceasefire committee.