Andal Ampatuan Sr. maintained innocence before death —lawyer

The lawyer of Andal Ampatuan Sr., a primary suspect in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, said the patriarch of the powerful political clan maintained his innocence before slipping into a coma last week.

Andal Sr., 74, died on Friday night at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City. He suffered a heart attack and went into a coma on Monday.

He was in the advanced stage of liver cancer when he had the heart attack.

In a television interview, lawyer Salvador Panelo said Andal Sr. wanted to get well "because he wanted to let the Court know the side of the story of the Ampatuans."

"He knew he was dying. He said, 'We are not part of this crime. I am innocent,'" Panelo said.

The lawyer added that his client was "framed" for the incident, where 58 people, including 32 press workers, were killed.

'Not there' during conspiracy meeting

Panelo said Andal Sr. maintained that he was not present during a so-called "conspiracy meeting" on November 17, 2009, when  the Ampatuans allegedly gathered their supporters and "planned publicly the ambush and the killing."

Panelo said five of the witnesses mentioned "were either in Manila or abroad," while Andal Jr. "was on a plane."

"This is the first time the people are hearing this because no one in media reported about this. The PAL (Philippine Airlines) officer testified that the Ampatuan Jr. was on the plane," Panelo said.

"There was one video of a rebel commander admitting [to] this crime," he added.

The murder trial of the elder Ampatuan and seven other clan members has moved excruciatingly slowly over the past five years.

With his passing, all cases against Andal Sr., related to the Maguindanao massacre and alleged poll fraud in Maguindanao in 2007, will have to be dismissed, Ferdinand Topacio, his legal counsel, told GMA News Online on Saturday.

Topacio added, however, that his camp is still standing by his client's innocence. -Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/NB, GMA News