Ampatuan speaks Filipino — gov't officials

Video footage has belied the claim of massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan, Jr.'s lawyer that his client can't understand Filipino. Now, government officials are attesting to his being able to speak the national language. In separate interviews, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Anti-Terrorism Unit head Ricardo Diaz, and Buluan town Vice Mayor Ismael "Toto" Mangudadatu all said they have personally talked to Ampatuan in Filipino. On Tuesday, Ampatuan's lawyer Sigfrid Fortun claimed at a hearing on the multiple murder charges against the mayor that his client cannot understand English and Filipino, so the charges should be read in Maguindanaoan. [See: Video footage shows Andal Jr. can speak Filipino "Alam mo nung nandon kami sa GenSan (General Santos City) ako mismo ang kausap e. Nakakapag-converse naman siya sakin (When we were in General Santos City, I spoke with him and he could converse in Filipino)," Devanadera told GMA News' Unang Hirit, adding that Fortun's claim appeared to be a delaying tactic.
Diaz, the NBI's spokesman on the Maguindanao massacre issue, also said Ampatuan could speak Filipino well. “Kausap ko siya sa Tagalog... Nag-uusap kami nang Tagalog. Marunong mag-Tagalog ang mama (We were speaking in Filipino. The man knows how to speak Filipino)," Diaz said in an interview on dzRH radio. Last November 23, alleged henchmen of the powerful Ampatuan clan took hostage the entire convoy led by the wife of Buluan town Vice Mayor Ismael "Toto" Mangudadatu. The wife, accompanied by relatives and journalists, was on her way to the provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak to file Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for governor. All the hostages were driven to an isolated hillside and murdered. Soldiers arrived before the killers could conceal all the bodies and their vehicles in mass graves. In an interview over radio dzBB, Mangudadatu likewise belied Fortun's claim. "Marunong mag-Tagalog yan. Nakasama ko yan sa Davao eh. Tagalog, Bisaya pwede (He can speak Tagalog. I was with him in Davao, he can speak Tagalog and Visayan)," Mangudadatu said, noting that Ampatuan had finished high school. Video footage showed that Ampatuan himself had spoken in Filipino when interviewed by the media shortly after his arrest and detention at the NBI headquarters in Manila. At the time, Ampatuan claimed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) unit headed by commander Umbra Kato was behind the massacre. “Napakadali para magbintang. Dapat may ebidensiya. Wala akong kasalanan. Ang may kasalanan ay MILF Umbra Kato (It’s so easy to accuse someone. There should be evidence. I’m innocent. The culprit is the MILF’s Umbra Kato)," he said at that time. — Johanna Camille L. Sisante and Sophia Regina Dedace, GMANews.TV