MANILA: The head of a powerful Philippine clan pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murdering 57 foes and journalists in his first court appearance on charges of masterminding the country's worst political massacre. Wearing a yellow prison shirt and closely guarded by police commandos, 70-year-old Andal Ampatuan Snr stood silently as more than two dozen relatives of the victims stared at him from across the courtroom. He nodded when asked if he understood the charges read out to him, as regional trial court judge Jocelyn Reyes ordered the trial to proceed after denying his last-minute appeal to delay proceedings. “Not guilty,” Ampatuan muttered to jeers from emotional relatives of the victims who packed the small room. The Muslim clan patriarch, his son and namesake Andal Ampatuan Jnr, and four other relatives are among more than 80 people arrested and charged with murder over the November 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people, 32 of whom were journalists. As the trial was underway, police announced that two more suspects -- an ex-policeman and an armed Ampatuan follower -- had been arrested in the southern province of Maguindanao, where the killings took place. More than a hundred other suspects, including Ampatuan relatives and members of a government-armed militia that worked under the family's direct command, remain at large. The court has yet to read the charges against 21 of those in custody, and legal experts had earlier warned the trial would stretch for years in the notoriously slow Philippine justice system.
