A FILIPINO politician was charged with murder yesterday after authorities accused him of ordering soldiers, police and other gunmen to kill at least 57 defenceless people in organised slaughter.

Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a mayor in the lawless southern Philippines, who until this week was an ally of President Gloria Arroyo and a member of her ruling coalition, was charged with seven counts of murder.

“He was the one who gave the instructions. He was among those ... who killed the victims,” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters as she outlined the case against Ampatuan Jnr.

She indicated more charges would likely be laid against him and others, saying the process of filing cases had only just begun.

Devanadera also revealed the suspect’s father, the leader of the Ampatuan clan and governor of Maguindanao province, was among eight other members of the powerful family under investigation and not allowed to leave the country.

Devanadera earlier gave the most detailed official account yet of Monday’s election-linked massacre, saying the female victims may have also been raped.

“It was horrible,” Devanadera told the GMA television network, recounting what she had seen of the bodies, as well as the testimony of many of those who had taken part in the killings.

Devanadera said the witnesses told prosecutors that Ampatuan Jnr ordered his private militia of more than 100 gunmen to open fire on the group of people in a remote farming area in Maguindanao province.

The gunmen had a short time earlier abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of rival Muslim politician Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a batch of local journalists.

The group had been travelling to an election office so Mangudadatu’s wife could nominate him to run against Ampatuan Jnr for the post of provincial governor in next year’s elections.

Fifty-seven bodies have since been recovered from shallow graves in the killing fields close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name. At least 22 of the victims were women.

Twenty-seven victims were journalists and 15 were motorists who were driving past the area at the wrong time.

Devanadera said the group of more than 100 gunmen included soldiers and policemen. She painted a gruesome picture of the fate of the women. “Even the private parts … were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women. All … had their zippers undone. The pants of some were pulled down ... We have yet to determine whether they were raped.” — Sapa-AFP