On December 9, 2009, a man wearing a heavy-hooded jacket was whisked into a waiting Air Force plane at the General Santos City airport. He had just been extricated by government troops from an area where Ampatuan followers were still believed to be lurking around. As soon as the plane touched down at the Villamor Air Base, the mysterious star witness was escorted away to safety, and kept under a tight security blanket.
On December 11, the eyewitness executed an affidavit detailing his explosive testimony on the Maguindanao massacre. It was not until he took the witness stand on January 13, 2010 that his identity would be revealed: Rasul Sangki, the vice-mayor of Ampatuan town, where the massacre took place.
Sangki was kept on the witness stand for more than five hours, including an hour-long grilling by defense counsel, Atty. Sigfrid Fortun.
In an interview after the hearing, Sangki admitted he was very nervous during his testimony, and yet he never wavered, never stealing a glance at the accused, Andal Ampatuan Jr, so as not to be distracted. Sangki said he would only look at Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes and the prosecution panel.
Still, Sangki, who is a grandnephew of the Ampatuan clan’s patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr, being a third cousin of his father, Datu Abdullah Sangki, the mayor of Ampatuan town, was prepared to go down the witness stand to identify Andal Jr. and tap him on the shoulder for identification, if not for the opposition of the defense counsel, which was sustained by Judge Solis-Reyes.
Reacting to his sister Aminah’s affidavit, which charges him of lying to cover up his involvement in the massacre and of being a drug addict, Sangki says she may have been forced to make the false allegations, because among those he implicated as having taken part in the massacre is his brother-in-law, Datu Banari Ampatuan, vice mayor of Mamasapano town. (Aminah Sangki Ampatuan’s affidavit has yet to be submitted to the court).
Rasul says his conscience bothered him, and he could not sleep after witnessing the massacre of 57 people on that fateful day of November 23. “ Sleep was elusive, I was thinking of my family, how could I reveal what happened if something would happen to them?”
It was only after the government ensured the safety of Sangki’s family that he issued an affidavit in the office of the NBI in Manila.
Even under the safekeeping of the government, Sangki says he continues to receive threats from the Ampatuans, who sent a message, “We will wipe out the Sangki family.”
Sangki says he has not seen his family since he came forward to reveal what he knows about the massacre. "I really miss them so much. Since my father and mother arrived from Mecca in early December, I have not seen them.”
But he is willing to make the sacrifice. “This is not just for myself but for my family. I am happy now that I have told the truth, with the help of Allah, so that the families of the victims will attain justice.”
But the memory of what he witnessed will be hard to erase.
Describing how Andal Jr. killed the members of the Mangudadatu convoy, he says, ”he kept shouting and shouting, like Rambo.”
His only prayer now is for the nightmares to stop, now that he had summoned enough courage to tell the court what he knows.
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