Ampatuans convicted over Maguindanao Massacre

Admin Disyembre 18, 2019

A trial court has declared several members of the influential Ampatuan clan guilty of multiple murder for the massacre of 57 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 Manny, Mohades, and Misuari Ampatuan, several police officers and other personalities, they were sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or up to 40 years of imprisonment, without parole.

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.

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.