State prosecutors yesterday showed graphic video images of mangled bodies of dozens of victims of a pre-election massacre in the southern Philippines as they pressed their opposition to bail for the main suspect.
Two 90-minute videotapes were shown at the resumption of the murder trial of Andal Ampatuan, who is accused of leading the Nov. 23 slaughter of 57 people, including journalists and relatives and supporters of his political rival.
A sister of one of the victims wept openly on seeing the images and was led out of the courtroom while a private prosecutor rushed out of the courtroom upon seeing the images and suddenly falling ill.
State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera told the court the “graphic, gruesome and lurid images” of the victims were meant to corroborate last week’s testimony of Rasul Sangki, vice mayor of Ampatuan township in Maguindanao Province, where the killings took place.
Sangki testified that he saw Ampatuan and dozens of gunmen shoot the victims at close range after they were stopped on their way to file candidacy documents for Esmael Mangudadatu, a political rival of Ampatuan’s who was launching a bid for provincial governor.
Jerry Atanoso, the official government cameraman of nearby Sultan Kudarat province, testified he was sent by Governor Suharto Mangudadatu — a cousin of Mangudadatu’s — to the massacre site to accompany investigators a day after the killings.
The video images showed bodies scattered on the ground around several vehicles. Others victims were shown being retrieved from three mass graves. Three crushed vehicles were found along with several bodies in one of the pits dug by a backhoe.
Earlier, Sangki testified that the victims pleaded for their lives on their knees. The gunmen continued to shoot those who had fallen “to make sure they will not survive,” he said.
Ampatuan showed no emotion, occasionally yawning, as he watched the video.
Atanoso and Sangki are among eight prosecution witnesses testifying against a request for bail filed by Ampatuan, who pleaded not guilty to multiple murder charges during arraignment two weeks earlier.
Among those killed were at least 30 journalists and their staff in the world’s deadliest single attack on media workers and the worst election violence ever in the Philippines.
The carnage has sparked international outrage, prompting Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to briefly impose martial law in Maguindanao.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS