Bodies found in Philippine massacre province

Leila de Lima said the bodies might be those of missing supporters of a rival politician, who vanished in 2003 in Maguindanao, a poor southern province that the clan controlled for a decade. -- PHOTO: AFP

MANILA - PHILIPPINE police have dug up two bodies while investigating other alleged murders by members of a powerful clan being tried for the country's worst political massacre, the justice secretary said on Tuesday.

Leila de Lima said the bodies might be those of missing supporters of a rival politician, who vanished in 2003 in Maguindanao, a poor southern province that the clan controlled for a decade.

'One of the skeletal remains was placed inside a sack and the body was apparently chopped, while the other one was outside the sack,' Ms de Lima told reporters.

Clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Snr, his son and namesake, and four other relatives have been arrested and charged with murder over the November 23 2009 massacre of 57 people, 32 of whom were journalists.

An informant led police to a secret gravesite where the two bodies were found on a Maguindanao hillock last weekend, Ms de Lima said.

The Ampatuans ruled Maguindanao province for a decade under the patronage of former president Gloria Arroyo, who rights monitors said allowed the clan to run a large private army as a proxy force against Muslim rebels. -- AFP