Rights group to gov’t: Arrest Maguindanao massacre suspects still at large

MANILA, Philippines — Maguindanao massacre suspects who remain at large should be arrested as they place families of the massacre victims at risk, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

Ahead of the Maguindanao massacre’s promulgation on Thursday, the HRW stressed that it should not take another heinous crime to happen before the government improves the delivery of justice.

“The families of Maguindanao victims and witnesses will be at risk so long as suspects remain free. Regardless of the verdicts in the case, Philippine authorities need to apprehend the several dozen suspects still at large,” HRW’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement.

HRW noted that 14 members of the Ampatuan clan and 50 police officers and soldiers linked to the massacre have yet to be arrested. Two of the Ampatuans, Zaldy and Andal Jr., are now detained.

“It should not take another crime as heinous as the Maguindanao Massacre for the Philippines to reform the delivery of justice,” Robertson said.

“But real reforms demand police who are committed to apprehending all criminal suspects, judges, and prosecutors who respect defendants’ rights and uphold the law, and elected officials who demonstrate political will,” he added.

Fifty-eight people were killed, including 32 journalists, after an armed group of the Ampatuan family supposedly blocked a convoy of Esmael Mangudadatu’s supporters, who were on their way to register his candidacy for governor on Nov. 23, 2009.

Edited by MUF