Suspect in Maguindanao massacre caught in South Cotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Police in Surallah, South Cotabato, arrested on Thursday a former militiaman associated with the Ampatuan clan on suspicion of involvement in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

While admitting he worked for the family of the former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., Abedin Alamada, alias Commander Perry, denied any involvement in the carnage.

Alamada told a local radio station in a telephone interview that he was in a Davao City hospital for kidney treatment when the November 23, 2009 massacre took place in Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

When he was discharged from the hospital, Alamada said, he decided not to return to Maguindanao for fear of being implicated in the massacre and hid on his farm in Barangay Upper Sepaka in Surallah.

“I have no knowledge about the massacre; I only learned about it through media reports while I was still in the hospital,” he said.

But Senior Superintendent Randolp Delfin, South Cotabato police director, said Alamada was among those listed on the warrant of arrest issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes in connection with the massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists and media workers.

He said Alamada’s arrest came through the help of an informant.

“After a few days of surveillance operations, the police’s intelligence unit served the warrant on Alamada, who did not resist arrest,” Delfin said.

Alamada is being held at the Surallah police office pending transfer to Manila to join other Maguindanao massacre suspects locked up there.