The victim was not just killed but dismembered in a signature style — with a chainsaw.

The grisly gangland murder of a person believed to be Maguindanao massacre eyewitness Esmail Amil Enog, whose chopped-up body was discovered last week, was the latest in a series of attempts to weaken the case against jailed leaders of the Ampatuan clan, accused in the slaughter of 57 people in November 2009.

Maguindanao has long been notorious for chainsaw murders meant to terrify the population.

"The body was put in a sack and it had been chopped up, probably chain-sawed to pieces," private prosecutor Nena Santos said, insisting that it was Enog's body. The former driver of the Ampatuans had been missing since March.

His body was found in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao and he is believed to have been dead for more than two weeks. Other prosecutors cautioned that they have yet to receive an official identification from the police.

Bloody campaign to derail prosecution

Almost three years after the massacre, with prominent members of the Ampatuan clan in jail while standing trial, the murder of Enog has highlighted anew a bloody campaign to derail the efforts of the prosecution.

A driver of a large number of the gunmen to the massacre site, Enog was the second witness to be slain; the first, in 2010, was Suwaib Upham who claimed to be one of the perpetrators of the massacre.

Enog had testified last year, telling the court that as an employee of the Ampatuan family, he drove 36 of the clan's armed followers to the site where 57 victims were later abducted and then driven to the killing field in Barangay Salman.


In April 2010, businessman Mohamadisa Simpal Sangki, 51, was stabbed and shot dead in Cotabato City in April 2010. He was the uncle of Ampatuan Vice Mayor Rasul Sangki, who was one of the first witnesses to implicate prime suspect Andal Jr, former Datu Unsay town mayor.

The murders are only the most brutal tactics. Other witnesses and loved ones of some of the victims have reported offers of "settlements," which have also been labeled bribes by their lawyers.

In addition to violent deaths, the case has also suffered bad luck. An important state prosecutor involved in the case, Leo Dacera, died in 2010 due to natural causes a year after the mass murder in Ampatuan town.

Enog's testimony

Enog's testimony in July 2011 centered on his alleged role in the massacre, driving 36 armed members of the Ampatuan clan's private army on the morning of November 23, from an Ampatuan abode in Shariff Aguak town to a checkpoint in Ampatuan town where the victims where later flagged down before being killed.

Following instructions of his direct boss, Alijol Ampatuan, Enog drove the gunmen in a truck in two batches. He did not claim to witness the massacre itself, but heard gunshots while he was driving back to Shariff Aguak.

In court, Enog positively identified four of the accused and currently detained as among those he had driven to the site: Mohades and Misuari Ampatuan; Mohamad Datumanong, alias Nicomedes Tolentino; and Tato Tampogao.

"Witnesses are being hunted down"

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Philippine government to "redouble its efforts" to protect witnesses in the murder trial, following Enog's death.

"These witnesses are in extreme danger and it is appalling that they are being hunted down one after the other," HRW deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson said.

Some prosecutors have refused to comment on Enog's supposed death, saying they have yet to receive an official police report confirming that the dismembered body belonged to Enog.

Private prosecutor Nena Santos, however, insists the remains could only be Enog's.

Prominent members of the Ampatuan clan, including its patriarch and his three sons, are facing murder charges for the killings and are being detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The Ampatuans are accused of plotting and carrying out the killings that left 57 people, including 32 journalists, dead.

Except for random motorists who found themselves on the same highway at the same time, the victims were part of the electoral convoy accompanying Mangudadatu's wife and two sisters who were supposed to file the certificate of candiacy of Esmael Mangudadatu for May 2010 polls, a move that was seen as a challenge to the Ampatuans.

Patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. had served as provincial governor twice before the massacre happened, while his sons were also government officials – Rizaldy (regional governor), Andal Jr. (town mayor), and Sajid (acting governor).

Enog had refused government protection, insisting he did not want to be confined inside a government safe house.

Other deaths

While Enog admitted to being a driver of the gunmen, the first slain witness, Suwaib Upham, alias "Jessie," confessed to being one of the killers. He had agreed to testify as a state witness in exchange for immunity against his comrades and his bosses, the Ampatuans.

Upham was supposed to have been added to the prosecution's list of around 100 witnesses if he were not murdered.

He likewise turned down an offer of government protection. Upham reportedly feared going to the DOJ office in Manila because he was told the Ampatuans controlled the agency, and ultimately chose to return to his home in Maguindanao.

The prosecution said Upham could have been one of its "biggest" witnesses.

Kenny Dalandag, who the prosecution claims to be its other crucial witness, almost testified in June 2010, but defense lawyers succeeded in blocking his taking the witness stand, saying he has yet to be converted into a state witness.

In his affidavit, Dalandag claimed he witnessed members of the Ampatuan clan meeting on the night of November 22 at the residence of Andal Sr. to iron out details of the massacre that was carried out the following day.

The Quezon City court hearing the case decided to defer Dalandag's testimony pending the resolution of the defense seeking to likewise charge Dalandag for the killings.

A suicide

Enog's murder came on the heels of another death that shook the murder case just three months ago.

PO2 Hernanie Decipulo supposedly jumped from the roof of the four-storey Quezon City Jail's Annex building, where he was detained along with the Ampatuans and fellow policemen tagged in the massacre.

Decipulo had just spoken with his wife on the rooftop during visitation hours when he jumped to his death.

Jail officials had been quoted as saying Decipulo seemed "depressed" days before the incident. He was among the accused being considered by the prosecution for state witness conversion.


Lawyers who were instrumental in the prosecution have died too. The sudden death due to heart attack of  Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera III was a particularly big blow to the case.

Explosive "gift"

One of the main surviving protagonists in the tragedy, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and two sisters were killed in the massacre, escaped an assassination attempt last August 15 – his birthday.

A car bomb went off along the national highway in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, while Mangudadatu's convoy was driving by. Two people were killed in the incident, one of them a Maguindanao board member who was with the convoy.

Mangudadatu suspected the blast was meant as a "gift" for his 43rd birthday. He shares the same birthday as his mortal enemy, former Datu Unsay town mayor and massacre suspect Andal Jr.

Bribery try

In December 2010, Mangudadatu claimed receiving bribe offers ranging from P150 to P300 million from an alleged emissary of the Ampatuans a month earlier, and that he possessed a recorded phone conversation to prove his claim.

In the recording, the man could be heard offering P150 million in exchange for the dropping of charges against Zaldy, who was then suspended as Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor.

A year later, in December 2011, prosecution witness 1Lt. Rolly Stefen Gempesao claimed he received a call from the Ampatuans' lawyer Sigfrid Fortun in the second week of February 2010, offering him a P2-million bribe. He said he recognized Fortun's voice because he often saw him in the news.

The Ampatuans and Fortun have vehemently denied the bribery accusations.

Witness protection

HRW's Pearson emphasized these threats to life and the bribery attempts contribute to the delay in the almost three-year-old case.

"Witnesses won't come forward if they and their families continue to be targeted. The government needs to act quickly to protect witnesses and their relatives, and to arrest and detain the remaining suspects," Pearson said. — LBG/HS, GMA News