MANILA, Philippines?The 57 victims lay in the dirt as they were shot one by one either in the mouth, chest or head, with Andal Ampatuan Jr. delivering the coup de grâce from his baby Armalite to make sure they were all dead.

But the women victims appeared to have suffered a more ghastly death, having been shot in the genitals and their vital parts chopped off by their killers.

These were the gory details disclosed Wednesday by the Philippine National Police of how Ampatuan Jr., a member of the all-powerful Maguindanao political clan, allegedly carried out the grisly Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao, based on the accounts of a civilian volunteer and a police officer who claimed to have witnessed the killings.

Ampatuan Jr., the mayor of Datu Unsay town, is the prime suspect in the massacre in Ampatuan town, the worst election-related violence yet in Philippine history.

?When he found that some were still alive, Andal Jr. would come close and shoot them again. He was reportedly checking on every one,? Senior Supt. Ericson Velasquez, the chief investigator of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group told a press briefing Wednesday.

Two witnesses

Velasquez was reading a summary of the sworn affidavits of civilian volunteer Takipan Dilun and police officer Rainer Ebus.

He said the claim of the two witnesses that all the victims were shot at close range?from about 2 feet away?by Ampatuan and his men, was corroborated by the results of tests conducted by the PNP crime laboratory.

According to CIDG Chief Supt. Raul Castañeda, Dilun and Ebus were the first witnesses to directly pinpoint Ampatuan Jr. as being behind the massacre.

The two witnesses have been included in the list of respondents in the multiple murder case. It would be up to the court to determine if they could be discharged as state witnesses, said Castañeda.

PNP Chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said Ampatuan had used an M-16 baby Armalite to shoot the victims, based on the accounts of Dilun and Ebus.

According to Ebus, he was with the group headed by Ampatuan Jr. that abducted the convoy of the Mangudadatu clan as it passed through Ampatuan town on its way to the local elections office in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao?s capital town, on Nov. 23.

He said the group had set up checkpoints along the national highway to intercept the convoy.

Plan hatched

The testimonies showed that there was a plan to abduct the members of the Mangudadatu family, said Verzosa. He said the plan was hatched with the intention of carrying out the deed from the date the filing of the candidacy papers started.

Quoting from Ebus? sworn affidavit, Verzosa said the armed supporters of Ampatuan Jr. had started manning checkpoints as early as Nov. 20, the day the Commission on Elections opened its doors to the registration of candidates for the 2010 elections.

?That?s why they were all able to put all their forces along the national highway in order to ensure that the Mangudadatu convoy will be checked,? said Velasquez.

Ebus claimed that on Nov. 23, Ampatuan and his party, who were also in a convoy, caught up with the Mangudadatus and the journalists accompanying them. The Mangudadatu convoy, composed of eight vehicles, was blocked at the checkpoint manned by Chief Insp. Sukarno Dicay, who is among the respondents in the multiple murder case.

2.5 km from checkpoint

Ampatuan and his group allegedly forcibly took the Mangudadatu group to a hilly portion of Sitio Masalay, some 2.5 kilometers away from the checkpoint.

Aside from the mayor, Dicay identified Bahnarin Ampatuan, Sukarno Badal, Ulo Ampatuan, Muhamad Sangki and Tami Masukat as among those who were at the checkpoint when the Mangudadatu convoy was stopped.

Ebus also identified Ipi Ampatuan, Harris Ampatuan, Moning Ampatuan, nine police officers, four Army sergeants and a master sergeant as among those present, said Velasquez.

Escape try

When some of the members of the Mangudadatu group attempted to escape, Ampatuan Jr. and Vice Mayor Datu Kanor began shooting at them, the witness said.

?They began jumping out of the vehicles to escape but the civilian volunteers who saw them escaping began shooting at them, too,? said Velasquez, still reading from Ebus? statement.

Ampatuan Jr. allegedly started shooting at the women and the members of the Mangudadatu family while they were still inside their car and were therefore unable to escape, according to Ebus.

Ebus said that after witnessing the murders, he went to a place that he did not identify and hid inside a vehicle.

161 suspects

Verzosa said that police has so far identified 161 suspects in the massacre.

Of the figure, 100 are paramilitary members who have been positively identified by witnesses and are already being hunted down by the police and the military, he said.

Majority of these suspects were part of the private security force of Ampatuan in Datu Unsay town, said Verzosa.

Sixty-eight are civilian volunteers of the police and the military operating in Datu Unsay; 17 in Shariff Aguak; 11 in Mamasapano; three in Datu Saudi and one in Sangki, he added.

?Reportedly, some of them have already joined the rebellious forces conducting rebellion in Maguindanao,? Verzosa said.

He said the authorities will be offering a reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of these suspects, the details of which would be released Thursday.

Police authorities Wednesday also expressed confidence that it has a strong case against the respondents.

Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano, the PNP deputy chief for operations, said the PNP was confident that it had enough evidence to prosecute the respondents.