COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) On Friday scoffed at the claim of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. that MILF rebels were behind the Nov. 23 mass murder in Maguindanao.

MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar said Ampatuan’s claim was “absurd” and that “even a small kid would not believe it.” MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said it was “a mediocre attempt to divert the issue.”

“Who would believe that?” Kabalu said.

Ampatuan, the prime suspect in the killings, had told reporters in Manila that MILF rebels under Commander Ameril Ombra Kato waylaid the Mangudadatu convoy in Ampatuan town and executed those who had joined it.

Buluan Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and sisters were among those killed, dismissed Ampatuan’s claim, saying witnesses had pointed to the latter as the mastermind.

He said his wife, Genalyn, called him before the killings started and told him that Ampatuan had slapped her.

Genalyn Mangudadatu and the couple’s supporters were to file the mayor’s certificate of candidacy for the Maguindanao gubernatorial race against Ampatuan.

Evidence against Ampatuan

In Davao City, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, the spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said Ampatuan’s claim that it was MILF rebels who had perpetrated the crime might be considered in the investigation.

“[But] as of now, the evidence [gathered is] against him,” Cabangbang said.

He said the evidence comprised “the calls and text messages from the victims, the survivors’ accounts, the statement of the other witness who claimed to be part of the group that carried out the crime and the backhoe of the province.”

Another ranking military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he personally believed that Kato was capable of perpetrating the massacre.

“We have seen how Kato killed his victims in the past,” the official said, but quickly added that based on the evidence, Ampatuan had ordered and even participated in the carnage.

Manhunt poised

Cabangbang said authorities now wanted to concentrate on the search for the other perpetrators.

“Our men on the ground are ready to launch the manhunt against those armed men who carried out the massacre. But we are still waiting for additional information from our witnesses,” he said.

In Cagayan de Oro City, Councilor Ramon Tabor said the government should show it was serious in its efforts to prosecute those behind the mass murder.

“Fast-tracking the investigation and evidence-gathering will [provide] the needed assurance that the government is working on it,” Tabor said.

Suara Bangsamoro national president Amirah Ali Lidasan said that even with Ampatuan’s much publicized yielding to authorities, the case should be tightly monitored to make sure there would be no whitewash.

“Wala na kaming tiwala sa pamahalaang Arroyo (We have lost all trust in the Arroyo administration),” Lidasan said.

Deflecting blame

In Manila, Sen. Loren Legarda said Ampatuan’s claim was intended to deflect blame and confuse the authorities.

“It’s like pinpointing the moon ... so the real perpetrators of the dastardly crime can get away with it. I fear that this would be a dead-end situation and a gross injustice to the victims who were noncombatants,” Legarda said yesterday on the phone.

“Something as gruesome as that must have been done in connivance with some authorities. I’ve been to Mindanao, which has checkpoints everywhere,” she said.

Legarda, a former broadcast journalist and the running mate of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar, had earlier requested the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Geneva to send a fact-finding body to prevent a whitewash.

She said the Arroyo administration should be prodded “to mete out punishment to the perpetrators of this heinous crime.”

How can it happen?

On Thursday night, Legarda spoke at a forum organized by the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC).

“How can something as gruesome as this happen in an area near the provincial capital?” she told the MOPC members who had observed a moment of silence for the victims of the mass murder.

“Now, not even the most callous can deny that journalists are being hunted in this country by those who seek to subvert our hard-earned democracy,” she said.

Legarda suggested that investigators ask police authorities about the personnel at the checkpoints where the six-vehicle Mangudadatu convoy was held before being brought to a hillside road and killed.

“The simple solution is locate those at the checkpoints at the time, and interrogate them. The police checkpoints can tell the story. Give us the names and positions of the personnel [concerned],” she said.

Legarda warned that a whitewash of the case would not be acceptable.

She added: “[With a whitewash], democracy and justice will be dead in this country and the people will kill with impunity, and will have no belief and trust in any government institution. It will be a ‘Wild, Wild West.’”