De Lima to NBI: Probe Ampatuan clan's other atrocities

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday said she will order the National Bureau of Investigation to look into other possible atrocities committed by members of the Ampatuan clan even before the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao province. De Lima said her department cannot just turn a blind eye on an international human rights group's report that showed that the powerful clan was behind at least 56 other killings in the last 20 years before the Nov. 23 massacre. (See: Rights group: Ampatuans killed more people in 20 years) "I will refer the matter to the Death Investigation Division of the NBI. I will ask them to preliminarily verify those reported incidents and if there are verifications, then I think there should be a full-blown investigation," said De Lima. The Death Investigation Division is the NBI's office tasked to probe extrajudicial killings. The NBI is an attached agency of the DOJ. Last Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch made public a 96-page report saying the Ampatuans were behind more than 50 incidents of killing, torture, sexual assault and abduction. The report alleged that the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was partly to blame for the power and wealth amassed by the Ampatuans during their long period of political dominance over Maguindanao, one of the poorest Philippine provinces. Human Rights Watch also claimed that under the Arroyo administration, there allegedly had been an "increased sale of military weaponry to local officials." The report likewise tackled how the clan used their private armed group and huge weapons arsenal to secure government posts in the region. Chainsaw killings Citing a witness account, the report said there had been chainsaw killings ordered by the Ampatuans. "These cases show often unrestrained brutality, such as the torture and killing by chainsaw of individuals suspected to be involved in a bomb attack against an Ampatuan family member in 2002," said a portion of the report's summary. On Wednesday, De Lima said that when she chaired the Commission on Human Rights at the time of the killings, she had come across allegations of such chainsaw killings. However, the CHR was not able to verify the information at the time. "We attempted to locate the alleged mass graves twice, based on informants' accounts. The CHR, assisted by the PNP-SOCO [Philippine National Police – Scene of the Crime Operations] tried to excavate the two sites of alleged mass graves, but it turned out to be negative," she said. Arroyo's tolerance? De Lima said it was also likely for the former president to coddle the Ampatuans by tolerating the alleged acts of violence perpetrated by the family. She said the Ampatuans must have felt they were "valuable" to the Arroyo administration because they helped government security forces in operations against the Moro insurgency. The Arroyo administration's supposed complacency led the family to believe it was untouchable, said De Lima. "Somehow, the previous administration was partly responsible for, at the very least, the tolerance [of the Ampatuans] that they became so powerful. They became untouchable because [the alleged atrocities] were just taken for granted," she said. "The rule of law was no longer there. Out of the sense of impunity came the climate of fear. The previous government shouldn't have taken this for granted. They created monsters out of these people," De Lima added. Live coverage The DOJ headed by De Lima is the agency that has been prosecuting suspects in the massacre, where 57 people were killed, of whom 32 were journalists. A 58th victim, also a journalist, remains missing. Clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and son, former Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., stand as the principal accused in the multiple murder case. In a related development, De Lima on Wednesday said she is personally in favor of having a live coverage of the Ampatuan multiple murder trial. She, however, said a live coverage may have its disadvantages as well. "The downside is, there is a rule of exclusion. Witnesses who are set to testify must be excluded [from the hearing while another witness is testifying]. How can you implement the rule of exclusion if the witness can see on television the testimony of the preceding witness?" she said. She added that live coverages may also give defense or prosecution lawyers a venue to grandstand. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) is set to ask the Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn a previous ruling that bars live coverage of court trials.—JV, GMANews.TV