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Cadet 1st Class Andal Ampatuan III and Cadet 1st Class Mohammadizar Caluang Misuari are among the 246 cadets who graduated from the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) on Thu, Mar 26.
“Ampatuan is from the political clan whose patriarch and many other members are standing trial for the Nov. 23, 2009, Maguindanao massacre,” reports Marlon Ramos in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The report noted: “Ampatuan’s grandfather and namesake, former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., is being held in a tightly guarded prison in Taguig City along with other clan members for the grisly murders of 57 people in the town named after their family. His other namesake and uncle, Andal ‘Unsay’ Ampatuan Jr., is also indicted for multiple murder over the killings.”
Meanwhile, Misuari is, as the report indicated, “a grandson of fugitive Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari, who went into hiding after the secessionist Moro rebels’ failed takeover of Zamboanga City in 2012.”
The younger Ampatuan and Misuari are part of the 36th batch of PNPA graduates. The class has adopted the name, “Lakandula,” which is the shortened form of the phrase, “Lahing kayumanggi na handang ialay sa bayan ang dugo at lakas” (Filipinos ready to serve and die for their country).
According to the Inquirer they “repeatedly asked the PNPA for an interview with Ampatuan and Misuari, but the leadership of the police academy did not grant the request.”
In any case, the report said that both Ampatuan and Misuari were well-liked by their classmates.
