Son of clan leader charged with 25 murders

MANILA, Philippines, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The son of a powerful local politician has been charged with 25 counts of murder in last week's hillside massacre of more than 50 people.

Andal Ampatuan Jr. is accused of the brutal slaying of the staff, supporters and family members of a rival politician who were on their way to register their candidate in a forthcoming election.

More than half the 57 victims were journalists accompanying the group, some of whose bullet-riddled and bludgeoned bodies were later found strewn along the verge of a highway.

More bodies were exhumed by a backhoe from nearby vacant land. Three of the vehicles in which the victims were traveling were also dug up, having been buried with the bodies shortly after the killing on the morning of Nov. 23.

Ampatuan, who turned himself in but has denied the charges, is the mayor of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao province. He is also the son of a family that has ruled, unopposed, the southern province on Mindanao, the second-largest island in the country and a Muslim majority area.

Police told local media that Ampatuan's father and six family members are being investigated but no charges have been filed. Media report that the family is close to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, although the family members are now being shunned after the killings, according to a correspondent from the British Broadcasting Corp. news service.

Ampatuan's trial is set to take place in Cotabato city, close to where the murders took place, but media believe government prosecutors will want it relocated to the capital Manila for security reasons.

Several people survived the midmorning ambush by gunmen at a makeshift roadblock. Among the dead are the wife, two sisters, an aunt and several supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, a deputy mayor of the local Bulan township who intends to run against Ampatuan Sr.

Police said they have at least 10 witnesses and more charges are being considered because they believe the murders were well-planned. They claim the backhoe had dug the graves before the slayings and was standing by to bury victims.

The government has declared Mindanao in a state of emergency and ordered the military to sweep through towns and villages to confiscate unlicensed weapons.

The massacre has shocked a country that is, to a degree at least, used to brutal slayings, especially resulting from kidnappings either by criminal extortionists or religious zealots.

Last month police found the head of a kidnapped Filipino man in a sack near a gas station, but his body has not been found.

Around 1,000 journalists took to the streets on Monday in an angry but controlled protest at the lack of security, claiming that the slayings involving journalists were the worst anywhere in the world.

An editorial in the Philippine Star newspaper said the dead journalists bring to 134 the number of media workers murdered since the restoration of democracy in 1986. "Press freedom advocacy groups noted that 74 of those deaths occurred under the watch of President Arroyo," the editorial said.

"Of that number, only a few cases have been solved. Many of the murders have been blamed on political warlords who control the police, prosecutors and judges in their respective bailiwicks. In the rare cases where suspects have been arrested, only the triggermen have been indicted, with the suspected brains remaining free."