This week’s milestones: Nov. 26 to Dec. 2, 2017
Nov. 26, 2009
Andal Ampatuan Jr., the primary suspect in the Maguindanao massacre, was placed in government custody. The arrest happened three days after the incident, considered the single deadliest attack against journalists anywhere in the world in recent years. Fifty-eight people, including 33 media workers, were killed in an ambush in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province. His father, Andal Ampatuan Sr., then Maguindanao governor, and other members of the Ampatuan clan were arrested days later. The suspects are detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan district, Taguig City. The elder Ampatuan died while on trial on July 17, 2015, after suffering from a heart attack.
Nov. 29, 2016
The Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center was inaugurated in Fort Magsaysay in the town of Laur, Nueva Ecija province. The 10,000-bed “megafacility” for rehabilitation offers a health-based approach to the government’s war on drugs. Chinese billionaire and real estate magnate Huang Rulun, who was once a trader in Manila’s Chinatown district in the 1980s, funded the construction of the sprawling center in the 10-hectare camp.
Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research Sources: Inquirer Archives, DOT, bataan.gov.ph, sarangani.gov.ph, depeddasma.edu.ph
