2 more Maguindanao massacre suspects fall

Two more suspects in the infamous Maguindanao massacre case, one of them a former town vice mayor, are now in the custody of law enforcers. Authorities identified the two as Sukarno Badal, who surrendered Sunday morning, and Salipada Tampugao, who was arrested a day before. The two were among the 195 suspects in the November 23, 2009 massacre. Of the number, 115 are still at large. Badal, former vice mayor of of Sultan sa Barongis town in Maguindanao, surrendered at around 8:30 a.m. Sunday to joint elements of the 33rd Infantry Battalion and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), according to Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz. Ortiz said Badal would be in the custody of Army and NBI units in Sultan Kudarat prior to his transfer to the NBI main office in Manila, as ordered by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. Badal also turned over to the security forces a number of high-powered firearms, including a .30 cal machine gun, two M16 rifles, and a cal.30 sniper rifle. Badal, alias Uka, was fetched by government security forces at the Udtong village in Lambayong town, Sultan Kudarat, then brought to a military installation in the province for “custodial debriefing," said Ortiz. Prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre case had said that Badal was “positively identified by witnesses as [among] of those who directly participated in the carnage of the victims." A day before Badal's surrender, authorities nabbed Tampugao at a checkpoint along Tamontaka Road in Cotabato City while he was on board a passenger vehicle. Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, chief of the Cotabato City police, said Tampugao was a former member of the Maguindanao Civilian Volunteers Organization. Dangane said Tampugao did not resist arrest but denied participation in massacre. His name, however, was included in the charge sheet with a P250,000 bounty on his head. The 57 victims were on their way to file the certificate for candidacy of Esmael “Toto" Mangudadatu, then vice-mayor of Buluan town who ran and eventually won as Maguindanao governor, when allegedly waylaid by the suspects supposedly upon orders by then Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. The victims included Mangudadatu’s wife, his two sisters, some journalists, lawyers, aides, and motorists who were witnesses or were mistakenly identified as part of the convoy. The Mangudadatus and the Ampatuans have a bitter political rivalry. – Larissa Mae Suarez and Malu Cadelina Manar/KBK, GMANews.TV