MANILA, Philippines ? The man who said he witnessed Monday?s massacre in Maguindanao province claimed he was promised money to take part in the killings, according to a correspondent of the Al-Jazeera news channel, who interviewed him.

The interview, carried locally on the ANC channel of the ABS-CBN news network, showed the man?identified only as ?Boy??to be in what looked like a room as he spoke.

He was interviewed by Al-Jazeera correspondent Marga Ortigas.

The man?s face was covered with a ski mask, his eyes showing through a slit. He was clad in what appeared to be a striped black jacket.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer could not independently verify the identity of the masked man.

Third party

Interviewed by ANC, Ortigas said that ?Boy? was initially reluctant to talk but Al-Jazeera was finally able to interview him with the help of a third party, whom it did not identify.

Ortigas said ?Boy? claimed that ?he was under the employ of Andal Ampatuan Jr. and that he was going to be paid to participate in Monday?s killing.?

Ortigas also said the man was ?in fear right now and in hiding.?

?He said ? he stood there almost paralyzed [during the killing] unable to stop anything from happening because he feared for his own life, unable to run away,? Ortigas told ANC.

Finally, ?Boy? said he was able to get away, according to Ortigas.

?He says ? he fled and didn?t even return home for fear of putting his family in danger,? Ortigas said, adding: ?It seems to me that he truly believed in what he was telling me.?

Excavator left behind

In the interview, ?Boy? said those supposedly involved in the killings left the scene in a hurry because they heard soldiers were coming, and left behind an excavator they had used to bury their victims.

In a previous Inquirer story, journalists on the scene of the massacre said a backhoe apparently used to dig the mass graves of the victims bore the name of Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Police have also said that some of the 57 people killed were likely motorists who just happened to be driving past on a Maguindanao highway when gunmen fired on the cars carrying journalists and members of the family of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.