Police are digging two pits in Barangay Salman, where the victims of the Ampatuan massacre where brought and mercilessly killed last Sunday.

Khu said eleven more bodies were dug up Wednesday bringing the number of killed in last Sunday’s grisly massacre to 57. 

“We found the bodies under six layers of soil,” he said.

Khu said the backhoe ran over the vehicles several times before dumping them to a ten-meter wide and eight-meter deep pit. He said they found three vehicles including the UNTV service vehicle, a Toyota Vios owned by the Tacurong City government and a Tamaraw FX van. 

“If there is such thing as a killing field, this is it,” Supt. Jose Garcia, head of the PNP Scene-on-the-Crime-Operations (SOCO) said. 

Dr. Benito Molino, forensic investigator, said some of the victims may have been alive since there were “tissue reactions” on the bodies.

“The red discolorations on their bodies are signs of tissue reactions indicating the victims did not die instantaneously. They were probably still breathing when they were buried,” Molino said. 

Police said at least 24 of the victims were made to line up and executed by machine gun fire. Their bodies were found in grave on the opposite side of the road.

“We found 100 empty M16 shells with magazine links near the pits. This was fired from a Minimi light machinegun,” Khu said. The Belgian-made FN Minimi light machinegun is a standard weapon of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

A witness who asked not to be identified said they saw a convoy of seven vehicles negotiate the dirt road to Barangay Salman that fateful morning. 

The witness said they saw several gunmen alight from the vehicle with a woman. The gunmen then beat up the woman. 

The witnesses said the convoy started up again up the hills and a few minutes later, gunfire was heard. 

“We heard one continuous gun fire,” a witness said.

The witnesses said they saw around 50 gunmen dressed in military uniform navigate the trail towards the direction of  Shariff Aguak.

Garcia said 24 bodies were found in a smaller pit while the three vehicles and 11 bodies were found in the other bigger pit across the road.

“Some bodies of the women were found in the van of Vice Mayor Eden Mangudadatu and some journalists were found in the Mitsubishi Pajero owned by DZRH reporter Henry Araneta,” Garcia said. 

He said he expect to finish their investigation in two or three days.

I expect to find more than 60 bodies or maybe it will be closer to 70,” Khu said.

Khu said he based his assumption on the discovery of the Toyota FX and Vios who were not part of the convoy but nonetheless stopped by the gunmen last Sunday.

“Who knows how many are still down there,” he said. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

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