Nearly three years after the worst political violence in the country, the National Bureau of Investigation has been tapped to assist police and military forces in going after 100 suspects in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre.  

In an interview with reporters on Monday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said: “I will discuss that to the NBI OIC (Nonnatus Caeser Rojas)... Tignan ko kung ano ang mga available manpower for that. Mayroon naman kaming mga field offices in Mindanao so we can tap them."

 

The incident left 57 people, including 32 journalists, dead in a remote village in Ampatuan town. A total of 96 suspects, including Ampatuan clan patriarch Andal Sr., are in police custody. The case is being heard at the sala of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes.

Around 20 of the suspects being hunted down have a P300,000 bounty each on their heads, while a P200,000 reward each is being offered for the rest of the on the loose suspects.

At the time of the killings, the convoy of the wife of then-Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan town, including relatives and journalists, was going to file Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for governor. Mangudadatu won the Maguindanao gubernatorial post during the 2010 elections. 

“Para lang makatulong na sa paghanap sa kanila (mga nagtatagong suspek), ma-neutralize na sila [kasi] for as long as they are out, there baka magtuluy-tuloy pa iyang mga ganyang insidente,” De Lima said.

 

De Lima was referring to the latest killing of a possible witness to the massacre. 

Last month, authorities confirmed that Menjie Nangulamas Ubpon, who was killed in Shariff Aguak in February, was the same person as Alijol Ampatuan, a prospective witness of the prosecution.

 

Apart from Ubpon, other slain witnesses include Suwaib Upham in 2010 and Esmail Amil Enog earlier this year.

 

The witnesses were not under the Witness Protection Program when they were killed.

 

“Kagaya ng nasabi ko na siguro kailangan talaga i-intensify i-step up ‘yung manhunt operations nung mga at large pa,” De Lima said. “May capacity pa sila. They can always terrorize the community especially na mukhang meron  pa rin silang resources.” 

 

Earlier, the prosecutors in the murder case said that the string of deaths among the witnesses send a “chilling effect” to the prosecution and its remaining witnesses. — RSJ, GMA News