MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE 3) Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. has pleaded not guilty to the additional 15 murder cases filed against him for his alleged role in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last November 23.

Aided by his lawyer Sigfried Fortun, Andal Jr., a member of a politically powerful Muslim clan that was once allied to the administration, entered his plea before presiding Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes at the resumption of his petition for bail in Camp Crame Wednesday.

The additional cases were filed by the relatives of the 15 journalists and media workers who were also victims in the carnage.

This brought to 56 the total number of cases filed against Andal Jr.

State prosecutors said some of the cases were filed this week because of difficulties of finding investigators outside the influence of the defendant's powerful family.

Prosecutors alleged that the defendant and up to 100 members of his private army stopped the convoy of journalists and relatives and supporters of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael ?Toto? Mangudadatu, on a highway in Maguindanao, kidnapped the victims at gunpoint, and took them to a hillside where they were shot dead beside ready-dug mass graves.

The dead included Ampatuan's wife and his pregnant sister, as well as 30 journalists.

At the trial Wednesday the defendant, who is in his mid-40s, wore a blue shirt as he talked to his lawyers.

Meanwhile, a heated exchange ensued between the prosecution and defense panels as Fortun questioned Mangudadatu?s real intent in accusing his client of multiple murder.

?You accuse the entire Ampatuan clan of abduction, mass murder, damage to property and robbery,? Fortun charged Mangudadatu during cross examination, citing several names of male Ampatuan family members. ?But you do not have factual basis.?

Mangudadatu insisted the Ampatuans were behind the crimes. ?Sila-sila may gawa no'n [They did it],? he replied.

?That's because you're a politician against the Ampatuan clan! Isn't that correct? That's why you included them all, isn't that correct,? Fortun countered.

?Yes,? Mangudadatu replied, in reference to his being a politician.

Fortun also told Mangudadatu that there was ?nothing different between your family and the Ampatuans . . . So this is about warring families against turf and control.?

"Tao po ang bumoboto sa amin [It is the people who are voting for us]," Mangudadatu said.

?What better way to put down the Ampatuans than accuse them of murder, then the Mangudadatus will be in control? Fortun told Mangudadatu.

?By making the statement [accusing Andal, Jr.] you are now catapulted in the limelight,? Fortun said.

Fortun said it was Mangudadatu who first implicated the Ampatuans to the death of his wife and several others based only on the last phone conversation he had with his wife Genalyn who said, "Nandito si Unsay, sinampal niya ako [Unsay is here. He slapped me]."

Fortun asked if Mangudadatu visited the site (of the massacre) to
which he said he could not bear going there.

"And yet you made conclusion about the backhoe and the manner those people were killed," Fortun asked.

"I saw it in a footage," Mangudadatu said.

"You accused the entire Ampatuan clan without any factual
basis...Despite lack of evidence, you made your own opinion...It was so convenient to accused Ampatuan Jr. who is running against you," Fortun said.

Mangudadatu said that he was against violence and that he was a peace-loving citizen.

But Fortun informed the court that Mangudadatu was indicted for murder in 2001 and was a respondent to separate complaints of multiple murder and illegal possession of firearms.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Leila de Lima told reporters waiting outside the makeshift courtroom at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame that Ampatuan?s legal team had tried to discredit Mangudadatu.

"[The Ampatuan camp is] trying to impeach his credibility. The counsel for the accused confronted him with records of criminal cases like murder," said De Lima, a court observer.

"He was also being put on the corner on supposed family of Mangudadatu. Ang insinuation is that since malaki silang political clan meron din silang kakayahan na ganyang scenario [The insinuation is since they are a big political clan, they also have the capacity to stage a similar scenario]," De Lima said, referring to the massacre of 57 people last November 23 allegedly perpetrated by the Ampatuans.

Mangudadatu?s wife, two sisters, lawyers and several supporters were among those ambushed and killed as they tried to file candidacy of the local exec for Maguindanao governor.

Andal Jr. was also seeking the same post currently held by his father, Andal Sr.

De Lima said the CHR was looking into reports that several of the witnesses against Ampatuan were receiving death threats.

De Lima noted that the sister of Vice Mayor Rasul Sangki was "under duress."

Sangki was one of those who implicated Ampatuan in the massacre.

"It should be a serious concern na nahahayaan na naiintimidate ang mga possible witnesses [that we are allowing possible witnesses to be intimidated]," De Lima said.

Mangudadatu, testified that he had previously been warned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her chief aides that the Ampatuans were "dangerous" and that he should not cross them.

He also said that the military and police had refused to give security to his relatives and the journalists accompanying them as they went to file his candidacy.

Mangudadatu told the court that he personally called Arroyo by mobile phone the day after the massacre to inform her of what happened. He did not say what her reaction was.

"I could not believe the highest office of the government could not serve or protect the people," Myrna Reblando, widow of one of the journalists, said.

"There were intelligence reports saying this would happen, that these people would be waylaid. She could have done something. These were her people," she said.

Asked if she was referring to Arroyo, she sobbed: "Yes."
Before the killings, the Ampatuans were close political allies of Arroyo, who armed and used them to help contain Muslim separatist rebels.

They were expelled from Arroyo's ruling party, the Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats, after the massacre and the government disarmed the political clan?s private army.