Andal Jr, several other Ampatuans convicted over Maguindanao massacre

GMA News | December 19, 2019

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 has declared several members of the influential Ampatuan
clan guilty of multiple murder for the massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao in 2009 that is known as an
unprecedented case of election-related violence and an exceptionally brutal attack on the press.

Among the Ampatuan clan members convicted were former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.,
former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan, Anwar Ampatuan Sr.,
Anwar "Ipi" Ampatuan Jr., and Anwar Sajid "Ulo" Ampatuan.

They were judged guilty for 57 counts of murder.

Along with several police officers and other personalities, these Ampatuans were sentenced to reclusion
perpetua, or up to 40 years of imprisonment, without parole.

Also convicted are the following:

 Inspector Saudi Mokamad  Mohamad To Datumanong a.k.a.

 Patrolman Jonathan Engid Nicomedes Amad Tolentino
 Abedin Alamada a.ka. Kumander Bedi  Misuari Ampatuan
 Talembo “Tammy” Masukat a.k.a  Taya Bangkulat
Talembo Kahar Abdulrakman  Salik Bangkulat,
 Theng P. Sali a.k.a. Abdullah hamid  Thong Guiamano a.k.a. Ibrahim Kamal
Abdulkahar Tatak,
 Manny Ampatuan,  Sonny K. Pindi a.k.a. Joven Salazar Piang
 Nasser Esmael a.k.a. Nasrudin Esmael  Armando Ambalgan a.k.a. Jamil
 Police Major Sukarno Dicay Bulatukan Kayansang/Bolatokan Omar
 Supterintendent Abusama Mundas  Kudza Masukat Uguia a.k.a. datu
Maguid Teng/Mustapha Ibrahim,
 Superintendent Bahnarin Kamaong  Edres Kasan a.k.a. Edres Gogo Alip,
 Tato Tampogao,  Zacaria P. Akin
 Mohades Ampatuan  Samaon Andatuan

They are all meted with the penalty of Reclusion Perpetua or up to 40 years imprisonment without the
benefit of Parole.

Other police officers and Bong Andal, who operated the backhoe in the infamous massacre, were
sentenced to six to 10 years in prison after they were found to have acted as accessories to the crime.

Clan patriarch Andal Sr. was also among the accused but he died of liver cancer while in detention in
2015.

Four Ampatuans — Akmad alias "Tato," Sajid Islam, Jonathan, Jimmy— along with several other
individuals, meanwhile, were acquitted on the ground of reasonable doubt.

They were ordered released from jail unless they are being detained for other lawful causes.

In her 761-page decision, the judge also ordered the principal accused to pay millions of pesos to the
heirs of each of the victims -- except that of photojournalist Reynaldo "Bebot" Momay, the 58th
massacre victim whose body was never found.

The court acquitted all the accused over Momay's death due to reasonable doubt and dismissed his
family's claim for damages.

The decision marks the conclusion at the trial court level of 10 years of anxious waiting for the massacre
victims' families, who have constantly called for justice for their loved ones.

Convictions are appealable all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Facts of the Case:

On November 23, 2009, the wife, sisters, relatives, and supporters of a 2010 Maguindanao gubernatorial
candidate — challenging an Ampatuan — were on their way to file his candidacy when they were
abducted by around a hundred armed men, forced up a remote hill, and shot using high-powered
firearms.
They were buried in a mass grave.

Thirty-two of the victims were members of the media who had accompanied the camp of the candidate,
then-Buluan vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, to cover the filing.

Mangudadatu is now a congressman.

Six of the victims were not part of the Mangudadatu and media convoy.

The massacre prompted then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to declare a state of emergency in
Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces and in Cotabato City on November 24 to "prevent and
suppress the occurrence of similar other incidents of lawless violence."

Martial law was declared in parts of Maguindanao on December 4 and lifted on December 12 as
members of the Ampatuan clan, Arroyo's political allies, were taken into custody.

Andal Jr. and Zaldy are the primary accused in the case and are in government custody. Datu Sajid Islam
Ampatuan was allowed to post bail in 2015.

Aside from being the Philippines' worst case of election-related violence, the massacre is considered by
the Committee to Protect Journalists as the single deadliest attack on the press since it began keeping
records on journalist deaths.

The Ampatuans, including clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan, Sr., were blamed for the crime, arrested,
charged, and later on tried for multiple murder. Andal Sr. died in 2015. His sons presented different
alibis in court.

The key witnesses told the court "they heard the Ampatuans plan the killing as early as July 2009, and as
late as November 19, 2009, or just four days before the massacre," according to a briefer by the
Freedom for Media, Freedom for All coalition.

Prosecution witnesses also said they saw Datu Unsay (Andal Jr.) kill the victims and order his men to
"hurry up" in burying the bodies, which were later found in a mass grave in Ampatuan town in
Maguindanao.

The defense, meanwhile, presented witnesses from the Ampatuan municipal government who testified
that Datu Unsay was in a meeting at the municipal hall during the time of the massacre. Datu Unsay also
testified that he was not at the massacre site when it happened.

The defense also said that no forensic evidence was presented to directly link Datu Unsay to the killings.

A total of 197 people, including 15 Ampatuans, were charged.

Over the course of the trial, six were cleared, two discharged as state witnesses, and eight died in
detention.

Eighty people are still at large. When proceedings wrapped up after more than nine years, 101
defendants remained.

Hundreds of volumes and tens of thousands of pages of case records piled up throughout nearly a
decade.

By the time the case was submitted for resolution last August, Solis-Reyes had heard 357 witnesses over
a total of 424 trial days, according to court records.

Delays

The case suffered delays from the sheer number of people and records involved and from procedural
requirements like bail hearings for 70 of the detained suspects.

"It was only on May 30, 2017, seven years after the trial began, that Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes denied
Datu Unsay's petition for bail," FMFA said in its briefer, adding Judge Solis-Reyes also had to face nine
motions for her to recuse herself from the trial.

"The numerous motions for reconsideration, the time given for the defendants to find new lawyers, as
well as 'delaying tactics of the defense', tied up the case during the last three years," FMFA said.
As the trial at the Regional Trial Court comes to a close, the case could go on longer before the verdict
becomes final and executory at the Supreme Court.

Timeline: The Maguindanao Massacre and the struggle for justice

Aljazeera | December 19, 2019

Since the attack, also referred to in the Philippines as the Ampatuan massacre, at least three witnesses
have been killed, while 80 of the suspects, including police officers and soldiers close to the Ampatuan
family, remain at large.

Victims' families, media groups covering the case and lawyers representing the victims have also
reported threats and harassment.

While the case took more than a decade to resolve, it is still considered as a speedy process, given the
number of suspects involved, and the volume of evidence considered.

Still, observers say that the government should do more to improve the process of delivering justice in
the Philippines.

Here's a timeline of what happened - starting with the day of massacre on November 23, 2009:

November 23, 2009

On the morning of November 23, 2009, just months ahead of the May 2010 elections, relatives of
Esmael Mangudadatu, a town mayor, were heading to the provincial capital of Maguindanao to file his
certificate of candidacy as governor when they were stopped by armed men at a checkpoint in the town
of Ampatuan, named after the powerful Ampatuan clan.

Mangudadatu himself had decided to stay home after receiving death threats.

Instead, he sent his pregnant wife, Genalyn, and other female relatives, believing that they would not be
hurt, because they were women. For added protection, they also invited a group of journalists and other
media workers to cover the filing of candidacy.

But that was no deterrent to the group of armed men, who ordered the convoy of vehicles to drive to
another location, where three mass graves had already been prepared for the victims.

According to witnesses, the leader of the group that carried out the attack was Andal Ampatuan Jr,
mayor of a neighbouring town, who was also planning to run for governor to succeed his father, Andal
Ampatuan Sr.

On November 26, three days after the attack, which sparked outrage both in the Philippines and abroad,
Andal Ampatuan Jr was convinced by his family to give himself up. He claimed that the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front carried out the carnage.

November 26, 2009

Under intense public pressure, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an ally of the
Ampatuan family, orders multiple murder charges to be filed against Ampatuan Jr. By early December,
his brother, Zaldy, and their father, Andal Ampatuan Sr, have also been arrested.

At the time of the incident, Zaldy was the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,
while the patriarch, Ampatuan Sr, was governor of Maguindanao.

Prosecutors later decide to transfer the case to the capital, Manila.

January 5, 2010
Andal Ampatuan Jr pleads not guilty to multiple murders. Months later, the court orders the mass arrest
of almost 200 more suspects.

June 14, 2010

Suwaib "Jessie" Upham, a prosecution witness who claimed to have knowledge of the massacre, is killed
by unidentified gunmen in Parang, Maguindanao.

June 9, 2011
Andal Ampatuan Sr is arraigned and pleads not guilty.
March 2012
Private prosecutor Nena Santos announces that state witness Esmael Enog has been killed. During the
trial, he testified that he drove at least 36 armed men in two groups to the site of the killings.

December 13, 2012

Zaldy Ampatuan, the brother of the main suspect, is arraigned and pleads not guilty to the murder
charges.

September 2014
Salvador Panelo, who would go on to serve as spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, joins the legal
team of Ampatuan Jr. He was quoted as saying that the Ampatuans were "framed to seize political
power", but later withdrew from the case citing "personal reasons".

October 13, 2014

The court grants bail to 16 of the accused who are police officers.

November 18, 2014

A witness in the case is killed and another wounded in an ambush in the province. Dennix Sakal, who
died from multiple gunshot wounds, and Butch Saudagal were both former employees of Ampatuan Jr.

January 9, 2015
Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes allows bail for Sajid Islam Ampatuan, another of Andal Ampatuan Sr's sons and
one of the alleged masterminds of the Maguindanao massacre.

April 24, 2015

The court denies bail for Andal Ampatuan Sr, saying the court found the evidence of guilt against him
was "strong and that there was also evidence that he monitored the execution through numerous
phone and radio calls".

July 17, 2015

Family patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr dies in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City,
two months after complaining of abdominal pains.

September 15, 2015

The court denies Zaldy Ampatuan's petition for bail.

December 9, 2015
The Philippine police board dismisses 21 police officers for conspiring with the Ampatuans, while 11
others are suspended. All of those dismissed are found guilty of grave misconduct.

June 2016
Ampatuan's defence team starts to present its evidence.

May 30, 2017

Andal Ampatuan Jr's bail is denied, and the decision affirmed in October.

August 21, 2018

Zaldy Ampatuan is allowed to leave jail to attend his daughter's wedding, sparking controversy.

September 30, 2018

The Philippine Star reports that one witness recanted his testimony against Ampatuan Jr, saying that he
had been pressured to testify.

May 13, 2019

Sajid Islam Ampatuan, one of the principle suspects, is elected as mayor of Shariff Saydona Mustapha in
Maguindanao.

July 17, 2019

After nearly ten years, the trial comes to an end.

October 21, 2019

Zaldy Ampatuan is admitted to a hospital due to alleged heart ailment.

December 19, 2019

Families gather in Manila to hear the judge deliver the verdict.
Did prosecution do enough? Ampatuan massacre verdict out today
Rappler.com | December 19, 2019

Ten years of trial end today, Thursday, December 19, as Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes hands
down her verdict on the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

The promulgation of judgment is expected to begin at 9 am at a courtroom inside Camp Bagong Diwa in
Taguig City.

"The prosecution presented all that it can. It did its best," said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who
inherited this case as the 8th Department of Justice (DOJ) chief to oversee the trial of the decade. The
DOJ prosecution panel at the tail end had 10 members led by City Prosecutor Amor Robles.

The Ampatuan massacre, which killed 58 people, 32 of them journalists, is said to be the deadliest attack
on media in the world.

Guevarra earlier said the DOJ is confident of a conviction for at least the principal accused, referring to
Ampatuan brothers Datu Andal Jr, Zaldy and Datu Sajid Islam. The Ampatuan patriarch and co-accused
Datu Andal Sr died in 2015.

Has the prosecution done enough?

Where's the trace evidence?

In his memorandum, or the final position paper of the 10-year-trial, Datu Andal Jr questioned the lack of
trace evidence by the prosecution, such as the ballistic report on the firearms allegedly used in killing
the 58 people.

"A ballistic study...should have been duly presented before the court during trial so as to supply the
material and unmistakable link between the alleged victims and the firearms supposedly used to kill
them, including the bullets purportedly found in their bodies," said Datu Andal Jr.

Datu Andal Jr was identified by witnesses, the most crucial of them being Sukarno Badal, a former vice
mayor in Maguindanao and their ally, who testified to seeing the Ampatuan scion kill some of the 58 on
November 23, 2009.

Datu Andal Jr also questioned the lack of DNA and fingerprint studies at the crime scene.

"Clearly, if a crime has been committed by allegedly more than a hundred culprits, it would be virtually
impossible that trace evidence could not be found nor gathered," said Datu Andal Jr.

Alibis

But Datu Andal Jr has his alibi: eyewitnesses saying he was in a meeting at the municipal hall of Datu
Unsay, a town named after him, from 8 am to 12:30 pm on November 23. Witnesses said the carnage
happened from 11:30 am to 12 noon.

However, all these eyewitnesses surfaced only in 2018, or 9 years after the massacre.

"Witness would have the Court believe that it was his conscience that actually made him testify," the
prosecution told the court.

In the case of eyewitness Mohammad Shamron Sapalon, the prosecution said cross-examinations
revealed that his testimony was motivated by fear.

"Over and above it was what witness revealed during cross-examination that we are convinced that it is
the greatest environmental factor fueling the testimony itself: fear," said the prosecution.

The prosecution also employed the principle of physical impossibility which simply asks this question: if
Datu Andal Jr was indeed at the municipal hall in the morning of November 23, was it physically
impossible for him to have traveled to and from the massacre site?

"It is clear that the accused was so near the massacre site on the day of the massacre which cannot
erase the possibility of him being present thereat despite his claim of being at the Municipal Hall
Building of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao on the day of the massacre," said the prosecution.

Where were they on meeting dates?

There were 4 key meetings leading to November 23, according to Badal and former Ampatuan
househelp and state witness Lakmodin Saliao.

July 20, 2009, in Century Park Hotel in Manila

November 16, 2009, in Barangay Bagong, Shariff Aguak in Ampatuan
November 17, 2009, at Zaldy's house in Ampatuan
November 22, 2009, at the Ampatuan farm in Barangay Bagong.
Badal and Saliao said all 3 brothers were in these meetings.

Datu Andal Jr claimed he was in the US, and actually mid-air on November 16 and 17, and arrived in the
Philippines only on November 18. Airport records support this.

Zaldy provided witnesses who swore they were with him in another place on those dates:

July 20, 2009 – Liaison Office of the ARMM in Legaspi Village, Makati
November 16, 2009 – ARMM satellite office in Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao
November 17, 2009 – Municipal Office of Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao
November 22, 2009 – Davao City

Sajid, on the other hand, said he was not on speaking terms with his father and brothers at the time
because of a spat over politics.

In these meetings, Badal and Salio said, they heard Zaldy speak, promising his guns for the massacre,
and coming up with a decoy plan so he would be in Manila on November 23. The state witnesses,
however, did not hear Sajid speak.

For that, Judge Reyes allowed Sajid to be out on an P11 million bail, saying in 2015 that "the court finds,
in its exercise of sound discretion, that the totality of the circumstances presently fails to reach the
threshold of strong evidence of guilt."

Badal and Saliao

Zaldy hammered on the credibility of Badal in his memorandum.

For example, Zaldy pointed out how Badal said that 200 firearms to be used for the massacre "caused a
delay at the airport when they tried to fly them back to Mindanao."

"Badal wants this Honorable Court to believe that 200 high-powered firearms could be snuck in Metro
Manila's busy airport and boarded on an airplane just like that," said Zaldy.

In an attempt to show "how truly impossible and incredible Badal's allegations were," the defense
presented Police Senior Inspector Garry Franco Puaso of the Aviation Security Group to say additional
permits from the Philippine National Police (PNP) were secured.

"Badal himself confessed he was a hired killer....Indeed, simply put, if he can be hired to kill, what more
to lie?" said Zaldy.

On Saliao, Zaldy said a househelp would not have been given easy access to whatever meeting.

Zaldy recalled a point during trial where Saliao claimed that upon the order of the Ampatuans, he gave
P20 million to former justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III as bribe.

Zaldy recalled that in defending Baraan, Harry Roque – then a private prosecutor in the case – reasoned
that the former justice official joined the DOJ only during the Aquino administration when the alleged
payoffs happened before that.

"Saliao has a past record that shows his moral corruptibility and a propensity to lie," said Zaldy.

Confident of conviction

Notwithstanding these, private prosecutor Nena Santos remains confident of a conviction.

In total, the prosecution presented 134 witnesses, on top of the 58 private complainants who also took
the stand.

The defense presented 165 witnesses.

Of the 197 accused, only 101 underwent trial.

"We are not sure of the 100% (all 197 accused), but we are sure that the principal accused will be
convicted," said Santos.

"If there will be no conviction, I am sorry to say that press freedom in the Philippines is dead," she
added.