Witness: ‘We just followed orders’
A man who says he was a witness to Monday’s massacre in the southern Philippines has told Al Jazeera how he was ordered to kill members of a rival political clan - including women and children - and to make sure no evidence was left behind.
The witness, who identified himself only as “Boy”, said he was among more than 100 armed men who held up a convoy of political campaigners and journalists before taking them to a remote mountainous area where they were then killed.
Speaking to Al Jazeera’s correspondent Marga Ortigas, “Boy” said the orders had come directly from Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor and a member of a politically powerful local with close ties to the Philippines president.
“Datu Andal himself said, he said to us: anyone from the Mangudadatu clan - women or children - should be killed… We don’t ask why, we just followed orders.”
Tags: Al Jazeera, Datu Andal, kill, Maguindanao massacre, Mangudadatu clan, Philippines president, speak, witness
