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.”

At least 57 people died in the massacre, believed to be the worst ever politically-related killings in the Philippines. “Boy”, who is now in hiding fearing his life is in danger, said all of the women in the group had been raped before being killed.
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The Maguindanao massacre, also known as the Ampatuan Massacre, happened on the morning of November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan in the Maguindanao province. United Nations led several other countries in condemning the mass slaughter of 57 people – including women and journalists – in a election-related massacre in Maguindanao last Monday.

Last Tuesday 46 bullet-ridden bodies were pulled out from shallow graves from the massacre site in Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan town. Today 11 more bodies were recovered in six in a large pit buried alongside three vehicles and five in a mass grave ‚Äî bringing the death toll in Monday’s attack on an election caravan to 57, including 18 journalists.

This is the most horrible election-related violence that ever happens in the Philippines. “Some bodies were strewn on the ground. Most were recovered from under lumps of earth which were stained with blood. They were piled on top of each other. It looked as if they were buried hurriedly.” said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, the regional police commander.

Supporters of Buluan Vice Mayor Toto Mangudadatu and Mangudadatu Vice Mayor Eden Mangudadatu and their companions were on their way to the Comelec office to file COCs at around 10:30 a.m. when they were blocked at a checkpoint manned by some 100 Maguindanao police personnel and armed civilian volunteers allegedly led by Datu Unsay town mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr.
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