MANILA (AFP) - – A member of a Muslim clan accused of orchestrating the Philippines' worst political massacre has been killed in an ambush, police said Thursday.
Authorities said they were checking whether Wednesday's attack that killed Cliff Ampatuan and wounded four other people, including his wife, had a connection with the massacre.
The 50-year-old victim, a local government worker, was attacked by motorcycle-riding men as he drove a car carrying his wife and the other victims, said Marcelo Pintac, police chief of Maguindanao province.
He said Cliff Ampatuan was a nephew of Andal Ampatuan Jnr, who is on trial along with his father and four other relatives for the murders last November of 57 people, including journalists and members of a rival Muslim clan.
Cliff Ampatuan's sister, Nelly Sangki, said her brother travelled unarmed and without escort but had told her three days before the ambush that unknown motorists had been tailing his car on his daily commute to his home.
While he was not among the suspects in last year's massacre, Cliff Ampatuan had taken a low profile and been very careful because he carried the clan name, his sister said.
Cliff Ampatuan worked for his sister's husband, who is the mayor of the town of Datu Abdullah Sangki.
Since the massacre, the province has been rocked by several killings of witnesses and their relatives, according to human rights monitors.
At least 120 of the massacre suspects remain at large.
Witnesses have testified that the massacre was part of a plot by the Ampatuan clan to stop a local rival from running against Andal Ampatuan Jnr for governor of Maguindanao in this year's national elections
