Aquino: Heads to roll if Ampatuan jail privileges are true

BANGKOK, Thailand—”Heads should roll.” This was President Benigno Aquino’s reaction to allegations that members of the influential Ampatuan clan accused of multiple murder for the Maguindanao massacre were allowed to go out of their prison cells.

Although he declined to comment fully on the issue since he had yet to see the photos presented by Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu to the media,  the President said  “there should be no VIP treatment.”

“But definitely if that indeed happened, then heads should roll,” Aquino told reporters after he delivered a speech before the Filipino community which concluded his two-day state visit here.

The President said he expected Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to furnish evidence of the reported VIP treatment given to the Ampatuans at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

He welcomed Robredo’s decision to relieve the Bicutan jail warden,  Chief Inspector Glennford Valdepeñas.

Meanwhile, the President, who was winding down a two-day state visit to Thailand, was scheduled to return to Manila on board a Philippine Airlines commercial flight later Friday and land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport before 6 p.m.

Earlier on Thursday night, Aquino expressed concern about the reported laxity of  prison officials who allegedly allowed former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. to roam around Camp Bagong Diwa.

Speaking with reporters covering his state visit here Thursday night,  Aquino said this was not the first time he had been told of the alleged special treatment afforded to the jailed members of the influential Ampatuan clan.

He said he had not heard previously that the Ampatuan patriarch had been photographed outside the jail, “but I want to see if there were really such photos,” the President said when asked if he had been apprised of  the photographs that Mangudadatu showed journalists on Thursday.

According to the President, Robredo informed him that he had led a surprise inspection of the building where Ampatuan and other clan members accused of slaughtering 57 people in Maguindanao were detained.

“What I know is that he received such a report for at least three or four instances. He went there not less than twice on a random day, but he did not see those (alleged special treatment),” Aquino said.