I don't think I will be around for the verdict.
"Filipino massacre trial gets underway; Servant testifies in ’09 ambush" by Associated Press | September 9, 2010
MANILA — A servant of the politically powerful clan accused in last year’s massacre of 57 people told a Philippine court yesterday that the family members plotted the killings of rivals and journalists over dinner six days before the ambush.
The witness, Lakmudin Saliao, took the stand on the first day of trial nearly 10 months after the Nov. 23 massacre in southern Maguindanao province exposed the shocking violence of Philippine politics. Among the dead were 30 media workers traveling in an election convoy, making it the deadliest single attack on reporters in the world.
That's why it got the attention it did.
Related: If at First You Don't Succeed, False Flag Again
Political Massacre in Philippines
Philippines Massacre was Perverted
More Water For Philippines
Filipino Fascism Based on False Flag
Filipino Frame Job
Clan Taken to Court in Philippines
But if you are mowing down Muslims in Kashmir it disappears from the news pages.
The patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan Sr., had gathered his siblings over dinner to ask them how they could stop their political rival from running for provincial governor, one of the key regional posts that the Ampatuans had held and exploited for years, Saliao said.
Why not just RIG an ELECTION as USUAL?!
It would have been a HELL of a LOT EASIER!
Former town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the scion of the clan and the prime suspect in the massacre, replied, “That’s easy. If they come here, just kill them all,’’ Saliao told the court.
He said the elder Ampatuan then asked his children if they agreed with the plan, and according to Saliao, “Everybody laughed, saying, ‘It’s OK for everybody to be killed.’ ’’
*************
It was on a hilltop near the highway that troops recovered the 57 bodies gunned down and hastily buried along with some of the victims’ vehicles in mass graves dug by a backhoe. Esmael Mangudadatu, his rival, who was later elected governor in the May elections, had sent his wife, sisters, and other female relatives accompanied by journalists in the belief that women would not be harmed.
Huh.
And CUI BONO, 'eh?
The COWARD was ELECTED?
On the day of the crime, Saliao said, Andal Ampatuan Jr. told his father through a cellphone — its loudspeaker on — that he had blocked the convoy. The father ordered him to gun down everybody but spare the media, to which Andal Ampatuan Jr. replied, “No, somebody could talk if we won’t wipe out everybody.’’
This is REALLY STARTING to STINK!
The Ampatuans have denied the charges. Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 16 policemen were the first to be arraigned and were led in handcuffs into the courtroom packed with anxious relatives and observers inside a Manila maximum-security prison.
Nena Santos, a lawyer for the Mangudadatus, described Saliao’s testimony as “a smoking gun.’’
Sort of like Norman Mineta's testimony to the 9/11 Commission.
Outside the courthouse, sharpshooters patrolled on a catwalk while dozens of heavily armed police stood guard....
The carnage drew international condemnation and prompted President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to impose martial law for a week as troops cracked down on the Ampatuans — her political allies.
Why wouldn't you just stuff ballot boxes instead?
A prominent senator, Joker Arroyo, has recently warned that the sheer volume of the case — at least 227 witnesses are listed by the prosecution and another 373 witnesses by the defense — means it could drag on for “200 years.’’
Also see: Empty Promises in the Philippines
Phillipines President's First Test
I guess this will be his second.
