Estrada is cleared to run for Philippine presidency

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: Jan. 21, 2009

MANILA: The Philippine election commission cleared the way Wednesday for the former president Joseph Estrada to run for the presidency a second time.

The commission dismissed the last remaining petitions seeking to disqualify Mr. Estrada, although some analysts believe the decision contravened the Constitution. The Constitution prohibits a president from seeking a second term, but Mr. Estrada has argued that this did not apply to him, because he was driven from power in 2001 before he could complete his first term.

‘‘I am not running for re-election,’’ he said in an interview in October. ‘‘I am running for election.’’

The commission’s decision did not directly address the issue of constitutionality, saying instead that ‘‘it is the Filipino people who would act as the final arbiter of whether they would have Estrada sit as president again.’’

It did point out, however, that Mr. Estrada’s civil and political rights had been restored when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pardoned the former president after he was convicted of corruption charges in 2007.

The Supreme Court has never issued a ruling on Mr. Estrada’s eligibility to run again for the presidency.

The commission’s ruling came on the ninth anniversary of the second ‘‘people power’’ uprising that led to his ouster.

In a statement, Mr. Estrada took note of the occasion, saying the date ‘‘is significant to me personally because it was exactly on this day nine years ago, Jan. 20, 2001, when the honor to serve the Filipino people as president was stolen from me.’’ He added that ‘‘today, the opportunity to serve has been returned and it seems as if I am being told that I need to complete the mission that my administration started in 1998.’’

Migrante, a political party of overseas Filipino workers that the commission had barred earlier from seeking sectoral representation in Congress, criticized the commission for favoring Mr. Estrada.

‘‘This only concretizes our stand that justice for marginalized sectors in the commission is very slim,’’ said Connie Bragas-Regalado, the party’s chairwoman.

The commission also disqualified a party of homosexuals, although this decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court.

One of the country’s most popular actors and politicians, Mr. Estrada was elected president in 1998. But allegations of corruption led to an impeachment trial that ultimately sent people to the streets. Mr. Estrada served only two years of his six-year term.

While the ruling Wednesday can be appealed, to the commission and ultimately the Supreme Court, it is unlikely that a new decision could come soon enough to meet the deadline to start printing ballots early next week. National and local elections are scheduled in May. At least 10 candidates are running for president.

Mr. Estrada’s supporters praised the decision, with a spokesman saying on Wednesday that it gives his candidacy a certainty that he hoped would be reflected in coming polls. In previous surveys, Mr. Estrada placed third, behind Senator Manuel Villar and Benigno Aquino III, the son of former president Corazon Aquino.Also on Wednesday, the commission ruled that President Arroyo, whose term ends in June, can run for a congressional seat in her hometown of Pampanga Province, rejecting a petition filed against her that cited the same constitutional ban used against Mr. Estrada.

Witness Implicates Mayor in Philippines Massacre

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: January 13, 2010

MANILA — A witness to the recent massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines testified Wednesday that the principal suspect in the case, a town mayor, shot several of the victims himself and that the mayor’s father, the patriarch of a powerful political clan once allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, had personally directed his son to carry out several of the killings.

The witness, Rasul Sangki, the vice mayor of the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao Province, told the court that the suspect, Andal Ampatuan Jr., killed at least three of the victims and ordered his supporters to shoot others to make sure they were dead. One of the victims, Mr. Sangki said, was a journalist begging for his life. But the mayor, Mr. Sangki testified, shot the man with an M-16 rifle.

Mr. Ampatuan, the only person indicted in the massacre so far, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 41 murder charges against him. In a brief interview with reporters on Wednesday — his first since he was charged — Mr. Ampatuan denied any role in the carnage.

“Allah knows that I am innocent,” he said.

Dante Jimenez, chairman of the watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, called Mr. Sangki’s testimony “very explosive and credible.”

Mr. Sangki was the first person to testify about the massacre on Nov. 23, in which 30 reporters and media workers were killed. It was the worst known attack on journalists, according to international media groups.

The massacre occurred when a convoy was making its way to Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital of Maguindanao, to file candidacy forms for Esmael Mangudadatu, the deputy mayor of a small town called Buluan. His wife, three sisters and an aunt were in the convoy, heading to an election office to enter him as a candidate for governor in this year’s election and presenting a direct challenge to Mr. Ampatuan.

According to Mr. Sangki, Mr. Ampatuan personally directed dozens of his armed supporters to take the victims to a hilltop where they were killed and later buried. The graves were reported to have been dug with a backhoe belonging to the Maguindanao provincial government.

Mr. Sangki was the first of several witnesses prosecutors say they will produce. He said that Mr. Ampatuan had shot the journalist, whom he identified as Jimmy Cabillo, as well as Mr. Mangudadatu’s wife and one of his sisters.

“He shot the victims as soon as they were brought to him,” Mr. Sangki testified. “They were on their knees, crying and shouting for mercy.”

Mr. Sangki also said that before the victims were herded to the hilltop, he heard Mr. Ampatuan talking to his father on a two-way radio. At the time, the father, Andal Ampatuan Sr. was the governor of Maguindanao Province.

“Father, they are here,” the son said, according to Mr. Sangki, who said he heard this reply in the Maguindanao dialect: “You know what to do.”

The elder Mr. Ampatuan had been a close political ally of President Arroyo and delivered crucial votes for her in the 2004 elections. Political analysts say it was this connection that allowed the Ampatuan clan to govern Maguindanao with an iron hand while developing a large private militia to reinforce their position.

The governor was the patriarch of a political dynasty that has ruled the southwestern wedge of the island of Mindanao for much of the past decade. He named Ampatuan town after his family, and several other towns are named after his sons.

The Ampatuans were expelled from Mrs. Arroyo’s political party soon after the massacre. The president vowed to investigate the killings and last month set up a commission tasked with dismantling the private armies in the country.

The elder Mr. Ampatuan is currently in the custody of the military, while three other sons are in police custody. Only Andal Ampatuan Jr. has been formally charged, although prosecutors have said they are still investigating and preparing cases against numerous other suspects.

Philippines Imposes Ban on Guns Until After Elections

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: January 10, 2010

MANILA — A nationwide gun ban took effect Sunday in the Philippines to stave off any increase in political violence as elections draw closer, officials said.

Elections in the Philippines are almost always bloody, mainly because of the dominance of political dynasties, the presence of nearly 70 private armies and militias and the proliferation of what are called “loose firearms” — mostly unlicensed and unregistered weapons.

Though the elections are scheduled for May, there have already been reports of killings and attacks on candidates this year. Manuel Villar, a presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party, said four of the party’s candidates for local office were killed in different areas in the first week of January.

The worst election-related violence happened even earlier, in November, when 57 people were killed on their way to register a candidate for governor in Maguindanao Province in the south.

The new gun ban calls for officials to establish more than 3,500 checkpoints — at least 90 of them in the capital, Manila — to be staffed by 100,000 soldiers and police officers.

Police officials said that 18 people had been arrested on Sunday for carrying firearms.

“Most of them said they were not aware that the gun ban was already in effect, but that is not an excuse,” said Leonardo Espina, a police spokesman. He said that charges would be filed against the violators.

Under the terms of the ban, civilians are not allowed to carry firearms outside of their homes, even if they are licensed. Only uniformed police officers or soldiers on duty are authorized to carry guns, and the law is so stringent that off-duty police officers who are in possession of firearms will be subject to arrest, Mr. Espina said. Three police officers, a navy enlisted man and a prison warden were among those detained Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

Politicians are prohibited from hiring bodyguards during the election period and possessing firearms as they campaign around the country.

Beyond that, the elections commission will have direct command of the police and the military at the checkpoints during the election period. The commission also has command of the military and the police in towns and provinces that are designated “hot spots” — areas that are thought to be vulnerable to violence during the election season. Maguindanao is among the dozens of provinces considered to be a hot spot.

Although campaigning officially starts in February and ends before Election Day, May 10, the gun ban will remain in effect until June 9.

The law follows a history of election-related violence. In legislative and local elections in 2007, more than 100 people died. In the 2004 elections for president, Congress and local officials, nearly 200 were killed.

Other forms of violence take place during elections in the Philippines, including the kidnapping of election officials and workers. Parties have also been known to engage in “ballot snatching,” in which supporters of the losing candidates steal ballot boxes and stuff them with false votes.

In extreme cases, school buildings where voting and counting take place have been burned down.

The government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has vowed to eliminate private armies before the election and has set up a commission that would dismantle the militias in the next four months — an objective that many here say is impossible to achieve.

Not Guilty Plea in Philippines Massacre

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: January 5, 2010

MANILA — The mayor of a town in the southern Philippines who is accused in the November massacre of dozens of people pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 41 murder charges.

It was the first day of the trial of the mayor, Andal Ampatuan Jr., whose family has been a close political ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Authorities said the massacre around Ampatuan, a town in the southern province of Maguindanao, left 57 people dead, making it the worst act of political violence in Philippine history. Among the victims were 30 reporters and media workers — the largest number of journalists killed in a single episode, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Prosecutors have filed only 41 cases so far, according to Harry Roque, a lawyer who represents several of the victims’ families, although he said he expected further filings to come.

Earlier, prosecutors said that hundreds of other individuals, mostly members of a militia maintained by Mr. Ampatuan’s family, also would be charged in the massacre. Some of those members are already in police custody, although only Mr. Ampatuan appeared in court on Tuesday.

Mr. Roque, in an interview, said he and other lawyers for the victims would ask the court next week to consolidate the cases against the accused. He also said they would ask for Mr. Ampatuan to be transferred to a jail in Quezon City, in the Manila metropolitan area, from the single cell he currently occupies under custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.

“He should be treated like any other criminal,” Mr. Roque said.

Mr. Ampatuan is the mayor of the town of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao, a predominantly Muslim province about 600 miles south of Manila. The families of some of the victims accused the government last week of giving the Ampatuans “special treatment” for allowing them to occupy cells by themselves and freely use their cellphones and for having their maids and cooks attend to them while in custody.

“The public, most of all our clients, are understandably wary about the treatment of the Ampatuans, given how close they were with the Arroyo administration,” Mr. Roque said, “which is why we are trying our best to convince the court to treat the Ampatuans like any other accused in any other crime.”

Security was tight at Tuesday’s hearing. Only a few journalists were allowed inside the court, a function hall inside the police headquarters in Quezon City that has been converted into a courtroom to accommodate more than 500 people. No phones, recorders or cameras were allowed.

Mr. Ampatuan arrived in a sport utility vehicle, escorted by 30 police officers, and he wore a bulletproof vest over a checked shirt. Dante Jimenez, chairman of the watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said Mr. Ampatuan yawned repeatedly during the proceedings “as if these things did not bother him.”

Several of the victims were the wife, sisters and other relatives of a one-time a political ally of the Ampatuans, Esmael Mangudadatu, known as Toto. Mr. Mangudadatu decided in November that he would challenge Mr. Ampatuan for the governorship of Maguindanao in this year’s election.

Wary of inciting his political opponents, Mr. Mangudadatu sent a number of his relatives — accompanied by the journalists — to file his candidacy papers on Nov. 23. As the delegation made its way to the election office, prosecutors say, Mr. Ampatuan and at least a hundred of his men blocked the convoy and took the party to a remote hilltop. The victims were then shot, mutilated and buried. The graves were dug, prosecutors said, with a backhoe belonging to the provincial government.

Mr. Ampatuan’s father, Andal Ampatuan Sr., was the governor of the province at the time of the massacre. He has since been replaced.

The massacre led Mrs. Arroyo to temporarily put Maguindanao under martial law as the authorities investigated the massacre. The president has been criticized for her past affiliation with the Ampatuans, especially after they delivered votes for her and her party in the 2004 elections.

Mrs. Arroyo formed a commission on Dec. 9 to find ways to dismantle the private armies, which have been widely blamed for much of the election violence in the Philippines over the years. The commission, with a deadline of four months, had its first meeting on Tuesday, according to Mr. Jimenez, who is a member.

Lawyers for Mr. Ampatuan filed a petition for bail on Tuesday, which the prosecutors countered by offering testimony from at least 12 witnesses. The judge, Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, scheduled a hearing for next week.