First Posted 05:59:00 05/06/2011
Filed Under: Maguindanao Massacre, Crime and Law and Justice, Ampatuan Trial
Three members of the Ampatuan clan wanted for the Maguindanao massacre freely roam the province and have even been seen “playing basketball” with soldiers, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said Thursday.
Mangudadatu told reporters that a relative of one of the massacre’s 57 victims had written Malacañang and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to complain about the government’s failure to arrest Bahnarin Ampatuan, Ulo Ampatuan and Ipi Ampatuan.
He said the three were grandsons of clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. who, with son Andal Jr. as primary suspect and other family members and followers, has been charged with multiple murder for the Maguindanao massacre, the worst incidence of political violence in the country, on Nov. 23, 2009.
Mangudadatu spoke during a break in the hearing of the massacre case at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City.
“They were seen playing basketball with soldiers, they’re still young,” Mangudadatu said.
Scot-free
They were also seen two weeks ago freely moving around Raja Buayan town whose mayor is also a clan member.
Despite the P300,000 bounty on each of their heads, the three were able to roam around because a local military official was “protecting” them, Mangudadatu said.
“If they really wanted to arrest (the three), they could have done so easily,” he said, declining, however, to name the military officer.
Of the 196 suspects in the massacre that claimed 57 lives—including the wife and relatives of Mangudadatu—79 have been arrested but only 56 have been arraigned in court.
Mangudadatu also Thursday reiterated his opposition to a motion filed by Andal Sr. asking to be hospitalized due to a prostate condition that has affected his leg.
‘He might escape’
“We will ask our lawyers to have our own doctors examine him. We do not want him to stay in a hospital indefinitely. He might escape,” Mangudadatu said.
Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes on Monday ordered the officer in charge of the Quezon City Jail Annex to have Andal Sr. examined by a physician of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
“(The physician) is directed to furnish this court the results thereof within 24 hours,” Reyes said.
“In the meantime, appropriate action on the prayer to authorize a full medical examination of the accused is held in abeyance pending compliance herewith,” she said.
Prosecution lawyers said they would file on Monday a formal opposition to a full medical exam for Andal Sr. outside the BJMP prison.
At Thursday’s hearing, police medico-legal officer Chief Insp. Raymond Cabling finished his testimony on the last four victims he autopsied.
Coroner’s testimony
Cabling said government employee Eduardo Lechonsito had 10 gunshot wounds, two of them in the head.
“One hit him in the jaw and it fractured the mandible and lacerated the brain. This was fatal because it was a head shot,” Cabling said.
Lechonsito, his wife Cecille and three others were in a Toyota Vios sedan on their way to Cotabato City when they fell in with the convoy that was on its way to Shariff Aguak town to file candidacy papers for Mangudadatu.
The Ampatuans allegedly wanted the convoy stopped at all cost to prevent the filing of Mangudadatu’s candidacy for governor, a post Andal Jr. also coveted.
Cecille’s autopsy showed traces of semen and a contusion in her vagina besides having been shot pointblank in the tongue and suffering six other gunshot wounds and two contusions in the body, Cabling said.
Daryll de los Reyes, Lechonsito’s co-worker who was in the car with them, had six gunshot wounds, two of them fatal, he said.
Cabling said journalist Fernando Razon of Periodico Ini in General Santos City suffered 10 gunshot wounds, two of them fatal.