Gov’t orders intensified manhunt for more than 80 Maguindanao massacre suspects
BULUAN, Maguindanao – The government has ordered security forces to intensify the manhunt for the remaining suspects in the gruesome Maguindanao massacre who are still at large despite the ongoing trial of the case which had already dragged on for almost nine years.
Undersecretary Joel Egco, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security Egco met here with local officials led by Maguindanao Gov. Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu and local media groups and gave them the assurance that the task force has been closely working with the police, military and other law enforcement agencies to effect the arrest of more than 80 massacre suspects who remain scot-free.
Egco said the task force had already provided security forces with copies of the arrest warrants for the suspects and posters which bear the pictures of the latter.
Egco, together with Paul Gutierrez, National Press Club president, assured Maguindanao officials and local media groups that the administration of President Duterte had taken steps to expedite the trial of the case so that justice will finally be served to the victims’ families.
At least 58 people, including 32 media workers, were executed by armed groups belonging to the Ampatuan political clan in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Novemver 23, 2009.
The victims, aboard a convoy of vehicles, were on their way to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao to file the certificate of candidacy of then gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangudadatu when they were seized by some 100 armed led by Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. along the national highway in Ampatuan town.
The court had indicted some 200 suspects including the principal accused in the multiple murder case including the late Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.
Egco noted that the remaining suspects who remain at large are not being hunted down during the previous administration to face the trial in the case.
“President Duterte has ordered the task force to account for all the suspects in the massacre,” Egco said.
Mangudadatu, whose wife, Ginalyn and sister, Eden were among those killed and massacred by members of the Ampatuan clan, the close political rival of Mangudadatu, lauded President Duterte for initiating steps to expedite the resolution of the case.