MANILA, Philippines--Two of the four police officers being held for questioning over their purported role in the mass murder in Maguindanao on Nov. 23 have confessed being in the area at the time of the carnage.

“They admitted that they were there. They were actually manning a police checkpoint on the road,” Senior Supt. Ericson Velasquez, head investigator of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said Saturday.

“It’s a fact that they cannot deny,” he said.

Velasquez declined to name the two police officers, saying to do so might affect the CIDG’s “tactical operations.” He also said the police officers feared for the lives of family members still in Maguindanao.

Police on Saturday concluded search and retrieval operations for bodies that may still be buried in a hilltop dirt road in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

Senior Supt. Bienvenido Latag, the acting police chief of the province, belied reports that the body count had risen to 64 from 57.

He said scene-of-the-crime operatives had not reported any new corpses dug up since Friday.

“But we will resume our search if somebody seeks our help to locate their slain kin,” Latag said.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima suggested the formation of an independent commission to investigate the massacre and the application of the writ of amparo to protect journalists, investigators and witnesses to the crime.

De Lima argued that the Thursday arrest of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. “raises more questions about what seems to be an overly cautious response by the executive department.”

“There are many options available to the executive… We have yet to see [it] explore and apply the remedies of administrative complaints and preventive suspension under the Local Government Code against Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and various local officials,” she said.

De Lima also noted that the arrest of Ampatuan Jr. came “rather slowly.”

“We hope that the focus on filing murder charges against Ampatuan Jr. does not remove attention from the other accountabilities of the government which must be addressed,” she said, adding that one “glaring omission” by the executive department stemmed from the silence of Ampatuan Sr. and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan on the massacre.

State witnesses

The killers of the members of the convoy heading to Shariff Aguak to submit Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy for the governorship of Maguindanao may be considered state witnesses if they come forward to testify, Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said at a press conference yesterday.

Asked if the government already had in custody people claiming to have taken part in the mass murder, she said: “They are possible state witnesses. I won’t say how many, but there are.

“If they are willing to be covered by the Witness Protection Program, they may be the A-1 witnesses. But if they refuse, that will cast a doubt on their credibility.”

Devanadera called on media networks reporting on purported eyewitnesses to coordinate with the Department of Justice so that their testimonies could be formalized and presented as evidence in court.

“I don’t even know where [the witnesses reported in the media] are. Our investigators should be given access to them. Otherwise, we may be obstructing justice that way,” she said.

Devanadera said several supposed witnesses had come forward since law enforcement agencies arrested Ampatuan Jr., the prime suspect, on Thursday.

“We are very careful. We are doing cross-checking of backgrounds. We’re still validating them,” she said, adding:

“Right now there are common allegations... It’s too gruesome.”

Jigsaw puzzle

Velasquez said the CIDG was still comparing the two police officers’ sworn statements to “physical evidence” gathered by crime scene investigators.

“We are after the truth here. We are making sure that these policemen are not lying. That’s why we are comparing their claims to the evidence we have,” he said. “It’s now a matter of arranging the facts and piecing together the evidence, like a jigsaw puzzle.”

Police had earlier ordered the administrative relief of Chief Insp. Sukarno Dicay, the Maguindanao deputy police director; Senior Insp. Ariel Diobingan, the police mobile group head; and SPO2 Badawi Bacal, Ampatuan police chief.

The Maguindanao police chief, Senior Supt. Agusana Maguid, was also ordered replaced by Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa.

Dicay, Diobingan and Bacal were reportedly seen in the area moments before the convoy comprising members of the Mangudadatu clan, lawyers and journalists were held at gunpoint and executed by some 100 armed men.

The four relieved police officers were taken to Camp Crame, the PNP’s main camp, on Thursday, on Verzosa’s order.

Military officers relieved

The Armed Forces has named the replacements of the two ranking military officials ordered relieved as part of the investigation of the purported involvement of government troops in the massacre.

AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara would take over the post of Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton, the 6th Infantry Division chief, and Col. Leo Ferrer would replace Col. Medardo Geslani as 601st Infantry Brigade commander.
Brawner said Cayton and Geslani, who had been told to report to Camp Aguinaldo, were not being considered suspects.

“They actually welcome the investigation because the AFP wants to erase doubts of the public about the alleged inaction of the military units under their command,” Brawner said on the phone.

He said Cayton and Geslani’s units were composed of 5,000 and 1,500 soldiers, respectively, all deployed in Maguindanao.

The CIDG’s Velasquez said at least 15 more policemen had been placed under “restrictive custody” and would be flown to Manila sunday.

He said the 15 policemen were subordinates of the two officers who admitted seeing the victims before they were murdered.

Apart from the depositions of the two officers, the CIDG is now holding the affidavits of seven “corroborating witnesses,” Velasquez said.

He said the CIDG might file cases against several members of the powerful Ampatuan clan next week, and that these would be different from the ones that the National Bureau of Investigation filed against Ampatuan Jr.

More arrests sought

Government prosecutors who conducted the inquest in General Santos City are to charge Ampatuan Jr. with an initial seven counts of murder when courts in Cotabato City reopen on Tuesday, Devanadera said.

She said other arrests were forthcoming “within the rule of law.”

De Lima, who joined Devanadera at the press conference, called for more “immediate action” from the government, such as the earlier grant of administrative control of the ARMM to the Department of Interior and Local Government.

“That’s the kind of daily swift action we want to see,” De Lima said. “Between now and Tuesday, there should be more arrests.”

De Lima said the CHR would conduct an independent parallel investigation.

“But given the magnitude of the crime, we feel there’s a need to collaborate and coordinate with the executive department, particularly the DOJ, the PNP and the NBI in the investigation of the Maguindanao massacre,” she said.

She said the CHR would share “expertise, information, witnesses and evidence, so we’ll be sure with the result.”

De Lima also said she would escort a Peruvian forensic expert and local forensic expert Dr. Raquel Fortun to Cotabato City today.

“We’ll talk to the families of the victims. We’re looking at a possible exhumation of the corpses to verify the forensic findings of the PNP and NBI,” she said.

Intention to kill

Interviewed by Vice President Noli de Castro over the latter’s tele-radio program, “Para Sa Iyo, Bayan,” Devanadera said more than 20 witnesses, two of them directly involved in the mass murder, had come forward to testify against Ampatuan Jr.

Devanadera said the witnesses sought the government’s protection as they feared for their lives and those of their families.

Asked by De Castro if she thought the crime was premeditated, Devanadera said the graves were dug by the perpetrators beforehand, indicating that there was an intention to kill.

She said President Macapagal-Arroyo had instructed her to prosecute all those involved, regardless of their political stature.

“No letup, no sacred cow,” Devanadera said, quoting Ms Arroyo. “And you know the President—she’s so impatient. We should not lose sight of our objective.”

Devanadera said the witnesses had been taken to General Santos City, where prosecutors were processing their applications for coverage by the Witness Protection Program.

She said she would not allow any local prosecutor to inhibit from the case just because they feared the suspects.

She also said that based on the statements of the witnesses, more than 100 armed men were involved in the killings.

During the same program, NBI Director Nestor Mantaring assured De Castro that Ampatuan Jr. was not getting special treatment.

Mantaring was reacting to criticism that Ampatuan Jr. was not handcuffed when taken to the NBI, and that he was being given kid-glove treatment while in detention. With reports from Cynthia D. Balana and Alcuin Papa