GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PNA) – The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said they were sending a team to Maguindanao province to exhume the remains of at least two more victims of summary killings.

Supt. Alex Lenesis, acting Maguindanao provincial police director, said they will check a reported gravesite in Datu Abdullah Sangki town Sunday to retrieve the remains of the supposed operator of the backhoe that figured in the massacre of at least 57 people, including 30 journalists, in Ampatuan town last November 23.

He said the backhoe operator, whom he did not identify, was reportedly executed and buried in the outskirts of Datu Abdullah Sangki town along with another unidentified person.

The town of Datu Abdullah Sangki is located southeast of the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak and Ampatuan town, where it was carved out in 2003.

“We will move to the site tomorrow (Sunday) along with CHR personnel to retrieve the remains of the two victims,” Lenesis said last Saturday.

But the official clarified that the site was not among the reported mass graves spread across Maguindanao province of victims of alleged mass murders being blamed on the family of former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and their supposed private armies.

Authorities earlier found an abandoned backhoe excavator owned by the provincial government of Maguindanao at the site of the infamous November 23 massacre in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town.

The excavator was reportedly used by the killers, who were allegedly led by Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town, in burying at least 35 of the 57 victims along with three vehicles in two mass graves in the area.

A group of about 100 armed men allegedly led by Ampatuan Jr. intercepted and later killed members of the family of Buluan, Maguindanao Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, their two lawyers and at least 30 journalists who were on their way to file the Vice Mayor's certificate of candidacy for governor at the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak town.

The Department of Justice has filed multiple murder and rebellion charges against several members of the Ampatuan family, including former Gov. Ampatuan Sr. and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, and 160 civilian volunteers and militiamen in connection with the gruesome killings.

The excavator’s main operator, identified as Efren Macanas, surfaced a week after the killings to deny involvement in the carnage and tagged his backup, Hamid Dilayudin, as the one who was operating the equipment at the time of the massacre.

Dilayudin, who went missing after the killings, was reportedly also executed and buried two weeks ago somewhere in Maguindanao.