The court in Quezon City is Thursday handing down verdicts for the almost 200 defendants charged with murder and other offences.
The two main accused – former mayor Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan Jr and his brother, Zaldy – were found guilty, while some other members of their family were acquitted.
Prosecutors say the massacre, allegedly carried out by the Ampatuan’s private army on a convoy that included opposition politician Esmael Mangudadatu’s wife and sisters, was connected to provincial elections.
One of the worst incidents of election violence in the Philippines’ history, the Nov 23 2009 massacre followed decades of escalating clan violence, entrenched corruption and political kickbacks.
Key members of the Ampatuan family, including Andal Ampatuan Jr and his father, the Maguindanao Governor, Andal Ampatuan Sr, who has since died, were charged and removed from their posts.
The Ampatuan brothers have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, with their defence focusing on the supposed lack of evidence directly linking them to the massacre.
Clan politics
“This is going to be a critical juncture in our history,” said Francisco Lara, sociology lecturer at the University of the Philippines who specialises in political economy of conflict and has written about the Maguindanao massacre.
“If the suspects are convicted, it will spell changes in the configuration of power in the country. A guilty verdict will have a dampening effect on clan feuds in Maguindanao, as it will signal that what Ampatuans did before cannot be done anymore.”
It will also have an impact on the dynamics between the state and clans, Lara said.
“The clans will see that there’s a possibility of getting justice from the centre, so it weakens them. They will realise that justice can be rendered not just by clans, but by the state.”
There is no indication how President Rodrigo Duterte will respond to the verdict. After meeting families of those murdered, Duterte last year instructed the prosecution panel to deliver a partial verdict against some of the accused.
Still, 80 suspects are still at large, and at least 50 of those were close security detail for Andal Ampatuan Jr, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Since the trial started in 2010, victims’ families and media groups have reported harassment and threats, forcing the family of one of the journalist victims to seek asylum abroad.
“This verdict should prompt the country’s political leaders to finally act to end state support for ‘private armies’ and militias that promote the political warlordism that gave rise to the Ampatuans,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch said in a statement Thursday.