Philippine massacre 'carefully planned': witness

Lakmudin Saliao's testimony directly linked Andal Ampatuan Jnr, the main defendant, to the planning and execution of the killings in the clan's former fiefdom of Maguindanao, an impoverished province in the troubled south.

The former mayor is accused of carrying out the November 23, 2009 killings of relatives of a rival politician who had challenged him for the post of governor and the 30 journalists, and two drivers, travelling in a convoy.

Saliao, 33, a former trusted aide of the Ampatuan family, said he attended a clan leaders' meeting at the home of the main defendant's father and namesake, Andal Ampatuan Snr, six days before the massacre to plan how to stop the rival.

"That's easy, father. We kill all of them when they come here," Saliao quoted Ampatuan Jnr as telling his father.

Ampatuan Jnr, in his 40s and heir-apparent to one of the most powerful Muslim political clans in the south, faces life in prison if convicted.

Ampatuan Snr, one of six Ampatuan defendants in the case, had ruled Maguindanao for nearly a decade and wanted to pass on the governor's post to his son.

Saliao said Ampatuan Snr then explained to his son how the killings should be carried out.

"Do not entrust the roadblock to others. You yourself should stop them at the highway, near the place where a backhoe is conducting some diggings," the witness quoted the patriarch as saying.

"Many of those in the room laughed and said they all agreed to have them killed," said Saliao, who told the court he was beside Ampatuan Snr during the meeting and clearly heard the statements.

In all 196 people are facing charges related to the massacre, although more than 100 of the alleged gunmen remain at large.

He said he later heard the son tell his father over speaker phone how the son had stopped the rival's convoy and subsequently carried out the killings.

Saliao said the father had wanted to spare the journalists in the convoy, but Ampatuan Jnr insisted on killing them all to leave no witnesses alive.

"Let us kill all of them. Some may talk if we spared them," Ampatuan Jnr told his father, according to Saliao.

Ampatuan Jnr, wearing a yellow prison shirt and flanked by jail guards, sat impassively behind his lawyers as the witness took the stand. He refused to talk to reporters after the hearing.

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