New Maguindanao massacre witness injured in ambush

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Gunmen on Wednesday nearly killed in an ambush in Guindulungan, Maguindanao a new prosecution witness to the infamous Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Kagui Akmad Ampatuan, former mayor of Salibo town in Maguindanao, sustained a gunshot wound in his arm when the suspects, positioned at one side of a highway shot his black Toyota pickup truck with assault rifles.

Two of Ampatuan’s companions, both his relatives, were also wounded in the attack.

Senior Superintendent Rudelio Jocson, provincial police director, said investigators are still trying to determine the identities of the ambushers.

Jocson called on residents of farming enclaves around the ambush scene to help identity the ambushers.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chair of the provincial peace and order council, said the attempt to kill Ampatuan came after he had signed sworn statements attesting to the involvement of several relatives, among them former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his son, Andal Ampatuan Jr., in the election-related massacre five years ago.

“Good enough Kagui Akmad was not killed in the ambush,” Mangudadatu said.

The victim’s son, Vice-Mayor Marop Ampatuan, is acting mayor of Sharif Aguak, the former provincial capital.

Marop assumed recently as mayor after the municipal chief executive, Zahara Ampatuan, daughter-in-law of Andal Sr., abandoned her post after a court issued a warrant for her arrest in connection with the murder early this year of Sharif Aguak’s municipal council secretary.

Ambush survivor Ampatuan and his companions were on their way home to Sharif Aguak from Cotabato City when they were attacked at a portion of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos City Highway in Barangay Bagan in Guindulungan town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The wounded Ampatuan, a former close aide of the feisty Andal Sr., was responsible for convincing erstwhile workers of the detained former governor to help in the litigation of the massacre case as prosecution witnesses.

Among those he had convinced to stand in court against the alleged massacre masterminds were a duo, a bagman and a driver of Andal, Jr. when he was still mayor of Maguindanao’s Datu Unsay town.

One of these two new witnesses was killed while the other was badly wounded in an ambush more than a month ago in Barangay Bagong in Shariff Aguak, while on their way to Tacurong City for a meeting with prosecution lawyers.