MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu was offered P100 million for him to back off from prosecuting the masterminds of the infamous Nov. 23, 2009 that left 58 people dead, among them his wife and 32 journalists.

Mangudadatu was still vice mayor then of their hometown, Buluan, in the second district of Maguindanao. He is now in his third term as governor of Maguindanao, to step down on June 30, 2019.

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He revealed the off court settlement attempt to Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar during their brief meeting Thursday at the massacre memorial in Barangay Masalay in Ampatuan town.

Reporters who covered the visit of Andanar, along with Joel Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, or PTFoMS, listened attentively as Mangudadatu narrated how an emissary contacted him, offering P100 million cash.

Mangudadatu said the person sent to broker the payoff, Ariel Galindez, was killed in a motorcycle accident in South Cotabato province after he turned the offer down.

“Am not saying anything except that he died in an accident after he talked to me,” Mangudadatu told Andanar and Egco in the presence of reporters from across central Mindanao.

Mangudadatu, who declined to identify who was to pay him the hefty bribe, was still vice mayor of Buluan when 58 people, 32 of them journalists, were killed nine years ago atop a hill in Sitio Salman in Barangay Masalay in what has become the country’s worst election related violence ever.

Among the fatalities were his spouse, Genalyn, his two sisters and several other relatives.

He said Galindez talked to him about the offer not to long after criminal cases were filed against the masterminds of the massacre, the former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., his son, Andal Jr., also known as Datu Unsay, and many other accomplices.

The massacre victims were on their way to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak to file there his certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao in preparation for the May 2010 elections when gunmen led by Andal Jr. flagged them down, herded them to a hill in Sitio Salman, Barangay Masalay where they were killed using assault rifles and machineguns.

Andanar and Egco were at the massacre memorial on Thursday to pay respect and to relay to the Mangudadatu clan that there could possibly be a judicial promulgation on the case by first quarter of 2019.

Mangudadatu told reporters he was happy with the news, something that they have been waiting for since after court proceedings began months after the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

Records from intelligence units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the Regional Police Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao indicated that at least five witnesses to the massacre have mysteriously been killed one after another in the past six years.

One of the witnesses, the now Shariff Aguak Vice Mayor Akmad Ampatuan, also known as Kagui Akmad, was wounded in an ambush about four years ago.

In a text message Friday while at Barangay Masalay to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the massacre, Mangudadatu said they are anticipating a good verdict from Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, where the suspects in the massacre are being litigated for the brutal offense.

“Allah has a way. Truly, as stated in the Qur’an, the most patient will never go astray. Had I accepted the P100 million, the story would have been different. It is not about money, it is about clan pride and honor that we can’t afford to sully,” Mangudadatu said.

Friday’s commemoration of the 9th anniversary of the massacre in Barangay Masalay was simple, capped off with prayers and messages by Mangudadatu and other officials in the province.

More than a hundred policemen and personnel of units under the 6th ID were deployed around the venue of the event as part of the security preparations to ward off saboteurs.

The site is within mortar range from positions of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF.

The group, which operates in the fashion of the Islamic State, is reportedly coddling some of the suspects in the massacre, among them a grandson of the deceased patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, Andal Sr.

Andal Sr. died of liver cancer while in detention in connection with his involvement in the carnage.

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