Mr Pintac said he had deployed additional policemen and requested a Marine
unit to guard the hospital, amid reports that Ampatuan gunmen could try to
rescue the wounded suspect.
Several members of the Ampatuan clan, including Ipeh’s father and grand
father, are also in custody while being tried for the murders.
The Ampatuans allegedly led a group of about 100 gunmen in stopping a convoy
of cars carrying relatives of a rival political candidate, their lawyers and
journalists, and then systematically killing them near a grassy hill.
The killings were apparently meant to stop Esmael Mangudadatu, a member of a
rival political clan, from challenging the governorship of Maguindanao
province, which the Ampatuans had controlled for over a decade.
Thirty-two of the victims were journalists, while the body of another reporter
believed to be also in the convoy remains unaccounted for two years after
the crime.
Philippine
politicians, especially those in remote areas, are known to control
their own private armies and clashes among them are common.
But the November 2009 massacre was the worst, and two years after the crime
none have yet been convicted.
Source: agencies
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