State prosecutors have filed multiple murder charges against the head of powerful Ampatuan clan and 195 other people, including his three sons and dozens of police officers and soldiers, in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province in Novermber.. Justice Department prosecutors Tuesday said Andal Ampatuan Sr. and the others were part of a conspiracy to ambush and kill members of the rival Mangudadatu family, who were gunned down Nov. 23 on a hilltop in Maguindanao province. Among those killed were 30 journalists and their staff who were going to cover the filing of candidacy papers for the May elections. Before Tuesday's indictment, only the patriarch's son and namesake, Andal Ampatuan Jr., had been charged. Included in the charge sheet were his son Zaldy Ampatuan, the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and Maguindanao Gov. Sajid Ampatuan. Andal Sr. is currently detained at the Camp Panacan Hospital in Davao City, while other Ampatuan clan members linked to the massacre were also arrested and confined in military camps. Andal Jr. has been held at the detention cell of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila. “From the witnesses presented by complainants, it can be deduced that the commission of the crime was planned deliberately by the perpetrators and that, until its consummation, there was an inexorable resolve to kill,” a resolution of a four-member prosecution panel said. The DOJ panel said there was also “viable evidence” that the local police and the military men were involved in the planning and execution of the crime. Aside from their indictment in the Nov. 23 massacre, Ampatuan Sr. and his two sons were charged, along with hundereds of supporters, with rebellion which prosecutors said they tried to carry out to stave off their arrest after committing the crime.
