Maguindanao Massacre: How the Ampatuans allegedly killed 58 people - The Most Popular Lists

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Maguindanao Massacre: How the Ampatuans allegedly killed 58 people



It took members of the Ampatuan clan four months to plan the most brutal massacre in the country's recent history, according to the whistleblowers in the case.

One of the prosecution's key witnesses, Sukarno Badal, testified that he was present when family patriarch Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. met with relatives, political advisers, and allies on July 20, 2009 to unveil the plot to kill then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu – for refusing to back down from the race for Maguindanao governor.


Andal Sr., was the incumbent, while his son and namesake Datu Andal "Unsay" Ampatuan, Jr. – then mayor of Datu Unsay town – was running to succeed him. Mangudadatu, who is also from a ruling political family in Mindanao, was seeking to end the 20-year rule of the Ampatuan family in Maguindanao.

Witness accounts showed that everything was set for November 23, 2009. A heavily armed Unsay was seen with members of his family's alleged private army guarding checkpoints in the town of Ampatuan. But their target, Mangudadatu, was nowhere to be found.


Mangudadatu told the court that his family and advisors decided to send his wife and other female family members to file his certificate of candidacy that day, confident that no harm would come to them because Islam, the dominant religion in the Muslim autonomous region, commands that women should be treated with utmost respect.

The Mangudadatu women were among the 58 people who were shot to death when their convoy of eight vehicles were ambushed that morning. Their corpses, along with 32 journalists who were going to cover the event, were hastily buried in three shallow graves on a hilltop.


The Maguindanao massacre has gone down in history as the world's deadliest single attack on journalists, and the worst case of election-related violence in the Philippines.

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This article first appeared on CNN Philippines.

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