Ampatuan Town massacre: From backhoe to chainsaw, probe set for 200 more Maguindanao killings

Ampatuan Town massacre: From backhoe to chainsaw, probe set for 200 more Maguindanao killings. 200 more murders took place in the Philippines’ southern province of Maguindanao, after 57 people were killed in the Ampatuan town massacre, there had been “hints" and “whispers.

Some of these victims were even chainsawed to death, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said. "There were at least 200 killings in this ‘chainsaw massacre’... as to who they were we don't know yet," CHR chairperson Leila de Lima said.

She added that verifying these pieces of information would be the next goal of the human rights body. The agency is currently investigating the bloodbath that shocked the world, which included the murder of 30 journalists, on November 23.

"We only learned about this through word of mouth... through whispers," de Lima told reporters in a press conference organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines in Makati City on Wednesday.

De Lima said that when they went to Maguindanao to conduct a parallel investigation of the carnage, residents started coming up to her, telling stories of people being allegedly killed and buried in "mass graves" by the Ampatuan family.

These incidents reportedly took place after 2001, when the clan’s political power began to take hold on the province.

Further investigation has to be conducted to check veracity of the claims, but initial information reaching the CHR identified the towns of Shariff Aguak and Ampatuan as the areas were these graves could be found.

Besides personally speaking with residents, De Lima said she also conferred with "around four to five" police investigators who confirmed these reports.

Although the commission remains focused on the November 23 massacre, its next goal is to look into the "chainsaw massacre" in about "two weeks' time."

The CHR would be spearheading the new investigation but it will still coordinate with concerned agencies like the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The November 23 massacre gripped the world because of the brutal manner by which the victims were killed: a convoy of more than 50 people were stopped at a checkpoint, brought some three kilometers from the highway, shot to death, and buried using backhoes.

Source: GMANews