THERE are ongoing efforts to convince witnesses to the 2009 Maguindanao massacre to recant their testimonies implicating members of the Ampatuan clan in order to weaken the multiple murder case against the latter, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu revealed on Wednesday.

A total of 58 people, 16 of them members of the Mangudadatu clan and 32 journalists, died in the massacre, allegedly masterminded by the Ampatuans, led by its patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., on November 23, 2009.