Explainer | Maguindanao massacre: 10 years after Philippines’ bloodiest political killing, will there finally be closure?
- The verdict in the trial for the 2009 killings – in which 58 people, including 32 journalists, were slaughtered – will be issued on December 19
- The leaders of the powerful Ampatuan family are charged with ordering the killings in a bid to quash an election challenge from a rival clan
Philippine history is dotted with political killings, and this Thursday a Manila court will issue a verdict on one of the bloodiest – the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
On November 23 that year, 58 men and women – including 32 journalists – were slaughtered and dumped into roadside pits during an attack that was also one of the world’s worst mass killings of media workers.
The leaders of the powerful Ampatuan family, who ruled Maguindanao, are charged with ordering the killings in a bid to quash an election challenge from a rival clan.
The reporters were covering a convoy carrying Genalyn Mangudadatu, her lawyers and relatives as she headed that morning to the nearest poll office to file her husband Esmael’s candidacy certificate in his bid to run as governor of the impoverished southern province.
Esmael had refused to give in to the request of the sitting governor, clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan, Snr, to let his son Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jnr run unopposed.
The murders, carried out in broad daylight, exposed how then president Gloria Arroyo had tolerated the Ampatuans’ heavily armed militia as a buffer against Muslim rebels in the south, home to the Catholic nation’s large Islamic minority.
How did this case even make it to court?
In the Philippines, it takes years to try a murder case with only one suspect. There were 197 suspects in the Maguindanao massacre, 28 of whom bore the surname Ampatuan. Of these, 101 are still on trial while 80 remain at large.
Members of the politically powerful family have long been suspected of extrajudicial killings, while some of the suspects were civilian militiamen assigned by the Arroyo government to their political allies to fend off threats from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front.
Nena Santos, a lawyer for the Mangudadatu family, told the South China Morning Post: “We were able to present evidence for the finding of probable cause during the preliminary investigation and a complete set of documentary and testimonial evidence to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
She said the physical evidence and papers submitted to the judge by the prosecution could fill a 50 square metre room.
What helped the case, Santos said, was that “all 30 major witnesses did not recant their testimonies despite threats”. Many of them were insiders who had witnessed the Ampatuans plan and carry out the massacre.
What happened during the massacre?
One key witness was Sukarno Badal, formerly a trusted aide of Unsay Ampatuan. He told the court he had personally seen Unsay shoot Genalyn and most of her 57 other companions.
Badal said he did not fire a single shot himself, as his job was to hold on to Unsay’s back to keep him steady as he fired an assortment of guns, including a K3 light machine gun.
He said Unsay’s white Lacoste shirt was stained with blood after 30 minutes, and he recalled militiamen shooting those who refused to get out of their vehicles as well as firing at those who had already been shot.
Badal said he had considered asking his boss to stop, but dropped the idea after Unsay shot dead one of his personal bodyguards who had voiced the same request.
A new lawyer for the Ampatuans in October asked the judge to reopen the case, claiming Badal would recant his testimony. Badal, however, said he had nightmares about the carnage, and hoped a conviction would make them stop.
As he told the judge: “Even if I die, I will never take back what I said.”
Global outrage and the Philippine media have also helped keep public interest on the case alive.
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What would a guilty verdict mean?
Mangudadatu lawyer Santos said even if the 101 people on trial were found guilty, it would still be a “partial verdict”.
“The threat [to the lives of the victims’ relatives and their lawyers] continues because 80 people are still at large, [and] those who were found guilty will likewise take revenge,” she said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out the same danger in a Wednesday statement. “Among the suspects not arrested are 14 members of the powerful and influential Ampatuan family [and] at least 50 of the 80 suspects at large are police officers and soldiers, some of whom had provided a close security detail for Andal Ampatuan Jnr, the main suspect,” it said.
“The police claim they have had difficulty locating and arresting the remaining suspects because most of them had sought refuge in rebel group strongholds in the southern Philippines.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, urged Philippine authorities to round up the remaining suspects because “the families of Maguindanao victims and witnesses will be at risk so long as suspects remain free”.
How has President Rodrigo Duterte aided the case’s resolution?
One of Duterte’s election promises was to get justice for the victims of the massacre.
On November 23, 2017, its eighth anniversary, Duterte met with some of the victims’ families whose lawyer was then presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. The president promised them speedy justice, financial aid and scholarships.
After Ampatuan patriarch Andal Snr died of heart failure in 2015, his two sons Zaldy and Unsay became the prime suspects. Last year, there was much outrage online when a video showed Zaldy dancing with his daughter at her wedding banquet in Manila, after the judge had secretly given him a three-hour pass from jail.
A leaked wedding invitation also listed as “principal sponsors” Duterte’s daughter Sara, the mayor of Davao City; executive secretary Salvador Medealdea; and the president’s then chief aide, Christopher Go.
In September, current presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo revealed that two women from the Ampatuan clan had visited him at the presidential palace, asking him to intercede on their behalf with Duterte.
According to Panelo, who had previously been the lawyer for suspect Shamron Ampatuan, Duterte had advised the two women to wait for the court’s verdict.
Santos, the lawyer, told the Post Duterte “did not do anything”, but she added that the office of the president had turned down an appeal from Shamron to exclude him from the murder charges.
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What would be the implication if the prime suspects are not found guilty?
Lawyers representing many of the victims’ families said the 101 defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, face up to 30 years in prison without parole if convicted of even one of the 58 murders.
Zaldy maintains he was not at the massacre, but is accused of taking part in its planning. He has repeatedly offered to turn state’s witness against his father and younger brother Unsay in exchange for immunity, but the prosecution has turned him down.
But as Santos told reporters: “If there is no conviction, I’m sorry to say press freedom is dead.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
