Relatives of 57 people killed in the Philippines’ worst political massacre plan

Relatives of 57 people killed in the Philippines’ worst political massacre plan to sue then-president Gloria Arroyo for arming and supporting the alleged murderers, their lawyer said Tuesday.

The civil suit seeking 15 million pesos (US$345,000) in damages will force Arroyo to fight another tough legal battle, after police charged her last week with conspiring to rig the 2007 senatorial elections.

The lawyer for the victims’ relatives, Harry Roque, said the lawsuit would be filed at a Manila court on Tuesday afternoon, deliberately timed just ahead of Wednesday’s two-year anniversary of the massacre.

Government prosecutors allege that leaders of the Ampatuan family, who ruled the southern province of Maguindanao, orchestrated the massacre to stop a political rival from challenging them in local elections.

The patriarch of the family, Andal Ampatuan Snr, was governor of Maguindanao and a member of Arroyo’s ruling coalition at the time of the massacre.

Arroyo’s government had given the Ampatuans military hardware and allowed them to run their own private army of a few thousand men as a proxy force in the fight against secessionist Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines.

Arroyo was forced to cut all ties with the Ampatuans following the murders.

Ampatuan Snr is in detention and on trial over the murders, along with his son and namesake, who is accused of leading more than 100 gunmen in detaining the victims and massacring them on a secluded rural road in Maguindanao.

Ampatuan Snr was also charged last week for allegedly conspiring with Arroyo to rig the 2007 senatorial elections.

President Benigno Aquino, who won presidential elections last year in a landslide after vowing to fight corruption, has made pursuing Arroyo the top priority of his anti-graft campaign.

Source AFP