Massacre witness found dead

A third witness in the massacre of 57 people during the election in the Philippines has been found dead and his body chopped to pieces.

Esmail Enog had already testified that he drove dozens of gunmen to the site of the massacre in southern Maguindanao province from the residence of one of the suspects.

Prosecutor Nena Santos said Mr Enog had been killed in March, but officials only found out about it recently.

She said he had refused the offer of protection from the Justice Department.

Members of the politically powerful Ampatuan clan are suspected of massacring their opponents in the impoverished and lawless region in 2009.

Among the dead were at least 31 media workers who travelled in a convoy that was ambushed en route to register the candidacy for governor of one of the Ampatuan family’s rivals.

It was the single worst killing of journalists in the world.

Mr Enog was a member of a government-armed militia force that was working for the Ampatuans, who were mayors and governors in the region.

He testified last July that he drove 36 other militiamen from the residence of Kanor Ampatuan, a cousin of clan patriarch and chief suspect Andal Ampatuan Sr, to a remote village in Ampatuan township.

This was where he said the 57 victims were brought and shot at close range.

The gunmen tried to hide the massacre by burying the bodies and some of their vehicles in a common grave.

Prosecutor Miss Santos said Mr Enog had refused the government protection because he did not want to be separated from his family.

"Life is difficult under the witness protection programme," she explained.

She said his body had been found dismembered and no suspect had been arrested.

He was the third witness to have been killed since the trial opened inside a maximum security prison in Manila in 2010.

More than 20 witnesses have testified against 103 suspects who have pleaded not guilty to murder. Nearly 100 others are still at large.

Miss Santos said witnesses and their families were continuing to face death threats, and some were being offered bribes not to testify.

A sibling of another witness had also been killed, she said.