Looters target private homes in Maguindanao
By Rose Tamayo-Tesoro (The Philippine Star) Updated January 09, 2010 12:00 AM
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SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao, Philippines – Residents here expressed fears yesterday that unidentified
armed men would attack more private residences after looters ransacked their houses last Thursday night.
Al Mahumbra said that his family and several neighbors were forced to leave their homes in Barangay
Poblacion after armed men barged into their houses and took their belongings.
Mahumbra said the looters took their two motorcycles, a mountain bike, food and other valuables.
“They (suspects) knocked on doors, house to house. At gunpoint, they took anything they wanted. We are so
helpless now because this (looting) is happening almost every night. The armed men said they would burn
us alive,” Mahumbra told The STAR.
Residents have started leaving their villages, taking their belongings to safer areas in Maguindanao and
Cotabato City.
“Last night one of us managed to escape and seek the assistance of the military at a nearby detachment,
but we became more hopeless when they refused to help us,” Mahumbra said.
Ali Macabalang, director of the Public Information Office of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM), said the situation in Maguindanao is alarming.
“This is so alarming. We are dealing with a crooked society here. I can compare the situation as a
recurrence of the pre-Edsa period,” Macabalang said.
He reported to Senior Superintendent Bienvenido Latag of the ARMM police that the situation in
Maguindanao is worsening.
“He (Latag) said he just arrived from a series of conferences in Manila. He will inform immediately the PNP
provincial director (in Maguindanao) to coordinate with the military and to address the situation squarely,”
Macabalang said.
Meanwhile, Malacañang called on the military and police commanders to explain the looting and ransacking
of villages and local government offices in Maguindanao.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the military and police commanders in the province should explain
the presence of marauding groups of men looting and ransacking villages and local government offices at
the provincial capitol they are supposed to be guarding.
Remonde said Malacañang would be focusing on apparent lapses on the part of the government security
personnel in failing to prevent the looting of the provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak, which was supposedly
under heavy guard as the state of emergency remains over the province in the aftermath of the Nov. 23
massacre that left 57 people dead.
“The authorities in charge there should give a satisfactory explanation for what is seen as their lapses,”
Remonde said, but declined to say if there will be any punitive actions imposed on the erring security
officials.
State of emergency remains
Malacañang said the state of emergency in Maguindanao would continue as long as looting and other
criminal activities continue in the province.
Local officials in Maguindanao called on the police and military to identify the group that had been harassing
several villages, robbing houses and local government offices even in the presence of government troops.
There were reports of armed men in “military uniform” roaming around and extorting money and food from
the villagers.
Unidentified gunmen also twice attempted to scale some of the mansions owned by the Ampatuan family,
blamed for the Nov. 23 massacre.
Another group also torched seven farmhouses of workers of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan
Sr.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao acting governor Ansarudin Adiong has ordered the regional police
to look into the reported activities of unidentified gunmen in Shariff Aguak and in the adjoining towns of
Ampatuan and Mamasapano.
Police, however, could not say if the gunmen are followers of the Ampatuans or Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) guerrillas.
Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and relatives were among those killed in the
massacre, urged the Senate to conduct an inquiry on the looting in Maguindanao.
Mangudadatu urged Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. to take the initiative to conduct a
congressional inquiry over the looting, particularly in the offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
in the province.
With the state of emergency in place, the military and police would maintain a strong presence in the
province to prevent any incidents of lawless violence.
Ironically, the looting took place in the provincial capitol under the noses of the military and policemen
guarding the area.
The police and the military, under the state of emergency, are still tasked to hunt down the armed supporters
of the Ampatuans and search their homes for more firearms.
This developed as a relative of the Ampatuans was gunned down yesterday in Datu Saudi town in
Maguindanao.
Police identified the victim as Jundeal Kamaong, son of Datu Piang Vice Mayor Datu Genwain Kamaong and
cousin of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the principal suspect in the Nov. 23 massacre.
Kamaong was inside a roadside eatery near the town hall of Datu Saudi when unidentified men approached
and shot the victim from behind.
Acting provincial police director Superintendent Alex Lineses said they are trying to determine if the killing of
Kamaong was in retaliation for the massacre.
The government has already filed charges of murder and rebellion against the Ampatuans and several other
people involved in the massacre.
Principal suspect Ampatuan Jr. is facing multiple charges of murder.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said they are prepared to present witnesses against Ampatuan Jr. next
week.
Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said they are scheduled to present more witnesses, including one of
the suspects in the carnage, to testify for the prosecution in the attempt to convince the court not to grant the
petition for bail filed by Ampatuan Jr. - With Paolo Romero, Edu Punay, John Unson, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro,
Christina Mendez
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Lacson takes cases to Supreme Court
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated January 09, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - Embattled Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday urged the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the
charges of murder filed against him by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the Dacer-Corbito double
murder case.
Lacson, through his lawyer Alexander Poblador, urged the high court to issue a temporary retraining order
(TRO) and enjoin the DOJ from pursuing the case, which he claimed had political undertones.
Poblador filed a petition before the SC claiming the DOJ lacked probable cause in filing the murder
complaint against Lacson.
Poblador alleged the government prosecutors exercised grave abuse of discretion in filing the murder case
to harass the senator.
According to Poblador, the only apparent basis of the DOJ to indict Lacson was the Feb. 1, 2009 affidavit of
former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II.
Poblador said the DOJ panel of prosecutors secured the affidavit signed by Mancao while he was in
detention in the United States awaiting extradition.
Mancao made the affidavit directly implicating Lacson in the November 2000 murders of publicist Salvador
“Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito.
Mancao was a former operative of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)
under the operational control of Lacson, then chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“The allegation of Mancao is false and will not suffice to show conspiracy. At best it would show that Lacson
was informed but not part of it,” Poblador said.
Poblador said the DOJ, in conducting the preliminary investigation, took over jurisdiction of the case from the
Manila Regional Trial Court where it had been pending since 2001.
“The DOJ had made a prejudgment and is not an impartial body to conduct an investigation,” Poblador
pointed out.
Poblador said they had also filed an omnibus motion before the Manila RTC to dismiss the case against
Lacson for lack of probable cause.
Alex Avisado, another lawyer for Lacson, claimed it was obvious that Malacañang had influenced the filing of
the case to implicate and pin down the senator.
Avisado maintained the evidence against Lacson was weak, including the documents and testimonies of
witnesses.
He said it would be difficult for the DOJ to pursue the case even with Malacanang’s interest to harass
Lacson.
Avisado claimed they have information that President Arroyo and her allies would still push through with the
case even in their last six months in power.
Sen. Jamby Madrigal, for her part, said the murder charges filed against Lacson were politically motivated.
She said the evidence gathered against Lacson were all based on hearsay and “adulterated.”
“This (murder charges against Lacson) is a tragic travesty of justice. This shall, however, be an opportunity
for Lacson to finally clear his name of these charges,” Madrigal said.
Face the music
Malacañang also said the charges would give Lacson the opportunity to clear his name over the murders.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Lacson should stop blaming politics for the filing of murder charges
against him, and “simply follow the lawful order of things.”
Remonde emphasized the developments in the case only came about because of the available testimony
and evidence gathered by the prosecution.
“The accusation of the camp of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the filing of this case is politically motivated is
sounding already like a broken record, a broken record of all the warped CDs of the present,” Remonde said.
What is happening with Lacson right now, Remonde said, is the law catching up with the lawmaker after
several decades of supposedly being beyond its reach.
“Perhaps we should also ask: Are they saying this because they could not accept the fact that he has always
been in power since martial law? And as such, he felt that... he’s beyond the pale of law?” Remonde said.
Remonde stressed Lacson is still presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He said Lacson should just follow the process and defend himself instead of resorting to squid tactics and
claiming political vendetta.
“He (Lacson) should face the music. I mean he should face the case as squarely as people who also faced
his accusations,” Remonde said.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera also stressed there is nothing political in the filing of charges against
Lacson.
Devanadera said the decision of investigating fiscals to file two counts of murder against the senator was
“based merely on evidence and testimonies submitted during preliminary investigation and was not in
anyway influenced by political considerations.”
“It’s easy to accuse the government of that, but in the end, it will be the evidence that should speak for itself.
Our panel of prosecutors, on the basis of evidence, found probable cause for the double murder against
Senator Ping Lacson,” she said.
Devanadera also rebutted claims of the lawyers of Lacson that the DOJ resolution charging the senator with
the murders is weak and based on conflicting statements of the senator’s two former police subordinates,
Mancao and Glenn Dumlao.
“These conflicts were explained by them (Mancao and Dumlao). What is important is how it was explained
by the affiants,” she explained.
Lacson has long been critical of the Arroyo administration and consistent in his numerous exposés against
the President and her family.
Lacson primarily accused First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of corruption and President Arroyo of electoral
fraud in the 2004 elections. -With Marvin Sy, Edu Punay
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