Editor’s Note: Latest update as of November 26, 2009, bodies recovered reach 57 – and still counting…
MANILA – At least 21 people, 13 of them women, were massacred Monday morning in what was believed to be a major flareup of political violence in a province in strife-torn Mindanao, the military and relatives of the victims reported.
Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), confirmed in live interviews with Manila-based radio and TV stations that soldiers have discovered the bodies of the 21 victims in a forested area near the capital town of Sharif Aguak, Maguindanao province in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Brawner said that of the bodies discovered at the scene, 13 were women and eight men. He cited an on the spot military report that the victims had shown signs of mutilation.
But he added the death toll could still go up, citing the same report that the soldiers also discovered newly-dug graves where the other victims were buried.
The victims, Brawner said, were among the 36 people, including about 15 Mindanao-based journalists, who were aboard at least five vehicles on their way to file a certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional office in Sharif Aguak.
In separate interviews, Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangundadatu of Buluan town in Maguindanao, said one of the massacre victims was his own wife, Genalyn Kiamson-Mangundadatu, who was reportedly beheaded.
Mangundadatu earlier announced he would run for governor of Maguindanao against the incumbent and reelectionist Andal Ampatuan, the father of ARMM Governor Rizaldy Ampatuan, the coming May 2010 polls.
Mangundadatu blamed the Ampatuans, their supporters and the police for the massacre. On the other hand, the Ampatuans could not be reached for comment.
According to Mangandadatu, he sent his wife, and several relatives to file his certificate of candidacy in Sharif Aguak in the company of about 15 Mindanao-based correspondents of broadcast and print media outfits in Manila.
Mangundadatu explained he decided to send his wife, his sister and several relatives and two women lawyers, to file his certificate of candidacy, thinking that in doing so, they would be safe and would not be harmed.
He disclosed he was prevented from personally filing the certificate of candidacy because he was in Manila on Monday.
Besides, Mangundadatu said security reasons also prevented him as he cited reports that he would be ambushed if he did so.
Meanwhile, the military said that based on still sketchy reports, the convoy bearing the victims were on their way to Sharif Aguak at about 10 am Monday when they were flagged down by uniformed policemen and miltiamen who put up a checkpoint in a major road intersection.
The reports said the policemen wanted to check whether the escorts in the convoy were allowed to carry firearms as ordered by the Commission on Elections.
For his part, Mangundadatu claimed the policemen were headed by their chief of Sharif Aguak, and town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Junior.
Mangundadatu also claimed that during the confrontation, his wife stabbed and hurt Mayor Ampatuan with a ball pen when he tried to forcibly take a copy of the certificate of candidacy from her.
From the checkpoint, Mangundadatu said the Mayor Ampatuan and the policemen abducted the victims and brought them to a heavily forested area near a camp of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) where they were slain.
He said he obtained the information from his wife and other relatives who, before they were killed, succeeded in reaching him through their mobile phones.
In Malacanang, a spokesman said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo denounced the massacre and ordered the military and the police to launch an immediate massive manhunt for the suspects and their arrest.
Mangundadatu said the Ampatuans are close political allies of the President, especially Governor Andal Ampatuan who is the regional chairman of the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats in ARMM, composed of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Marawi City.
The ARMM has always been considered a “hot spot” every election time, according to the Philippine National Police.
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