Partial conviction of 2009 massacre suspects eyed

Relatives of the 57 victims of the November 23, 2009 massacre offer flowers and candles during a memorial service at the massacre site in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province on the southern island of Mindanao on November 23, 2010. The Philippines on November 23 mourned the one-year anniversary of the country's worst political massacre amid pleas for justice and fears of attacks by the clan blamed for the murders. AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE President Rodrigo Duterte has issued a marching order to government prosecutors in a bid to obtain a partial judgment against some of the accused in the infamous Maguindanao massacre within the year, a Palace official said last Tuesday.

“The President has instructed the prosecution panel to do its best to get partial judgment against some of the accused within the year. And we hope to do that,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said during a press conference at the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College.

Since 2009, no convictions have been made in the Maguindanao massacre cases, where 58 people, 32 of whom were journalists, were killed on a hill in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province.

The event, also known as the Ampatuan massacre, is described as the worst case of election-related violence in the Philippines. Former Buluan vice mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu challenged Andal Ampatuan Jr., a member of the powerful Ampatuan clan, for the position of governor in the 2010 gubernatorial elections.

Seven Mangudadatu family members, including the vice mayor’s wife, Bai Genalyn, and his sister, were on a vehicle convoy together with the newsmen going toward Shariff Aguak to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy when flagged down by some 100 armed men.

The victims were then brought to the interiors of the village were they were gruesomely executed, some of whom were hastily buried by a backhoe.

Manhunt operations bagged 197 suspects, including Ampatuan Jr., the principal massacre suspect, his brother former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, Datu Anwar Ampatuan Sr., Datu Anwar Ampatuan Jr. and Datu Akmad Ampatuan.

In 2015, detained patriarch former Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. died at a hospital in Manila due to liver cancer.

Out on a bail are Sajid Ampatuan, another son of Ampatuan Sr., and 16 policemen of the 1508th Provincial Mobile Group. Their bail petitions were granted by a Quezon City court and were affirmed by the Court of Appeals.