MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared on Tuesday a “state of emergency†in three areas of restive Mindanao where at least 47 people have been massacred in a major flareup of political violence in the runup to the May 2010 elections, a senior Malacanang official disclosed.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the declaration covers Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, which are component provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and neighboring Cotabato City which hosts the ARRM regional government.
Remonde said President Arroyo imposed the state of emergency to prevent an escalation of violence and to hasten the arrest of the suspects involved in the massacre whose victims included members of an influential and powerful clan in Maguindanao and at least 12 journalists.
Also on Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), reported that the number of fatalities has risen from 21 to 47 following the discovery of 26 more bodies from a newly-dug common grave for the victims.
The AFP spokesman blamed “rido,†meaning “family or clan feud†between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus of Maguindanao for the massacre, considered the worst in the violence-plagued political history not only in the the province but for the whole of strife-torn Mindanao.
In Malacanang, Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government vowed there would be no “sacred cows†in the determined efforts of the government to arrest the killers and bring them to justice.
At the same time, Jesus Verzosa, the director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), announced he ordered the relief and confinement to quarters of Chief Inspector Sukarno Adil Dicay, the chief of police of the Maguindanao’s capital town of Shariff Aguak, for his alleged participation in the massacre.
But sources, who requested anonymity, disclosed that Dicay has “disappeared†after he was tagged by witnesses as the leader of about 100 uniformed policemen and militiamen who abducted and then killed the victims in a heavily-forested area near the camp of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the town of Datu Unsay.
The sources also confirmed the claim of Vice Mayor Ibrahim “Toto†Mangudadatu of Buluan, Maguindanao that also seen in the company of Dicay was Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Junior, the son and namesake of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan.
In interviews with Metro Manila-based radio and TV stations, Mangudadatu revealed that he has under his protection four witnesses, who reportedly survived the massacre and who are willing to testify that they heard Mayor Ampatuan say he was acting on the orders of his father and his brother Zaldy, the governor of ARMM.
Initial investigation showed that members of the Mangudadatu clan, including the wife of Toto Mangudadatu, were on their way Monday morning aboard five vehicles, including 15 journalists, to file a certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional office in Shariff Aguak.
The nomination papers were for Toto Mangudadatu who is running for governor of Maguindanao in the May 2010 elections against the incumbent and reelectionist Andal Ampatuan Sr., described as a close ally of the Arroyo administration and the head of the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats chapter in ARMM.
But before they could reach Shariff Aguak, the convoy was stopped by about 100 uniformed policemen and militiamen who established a checkpoint allegedly to determine whether those aboard the vehicles had armed escorts.
But Toto Mangudadatu said he decided not to file personally his certificate of candidacy for security reasons but sent instead his wife, his two sisters, two women lawyers and other relatives, including the 15 journalists, without any armed escorts.
Mangudadatu explained he sent the clan’s women members, thinking that in doing so they would be safe and would not be harmed.
Reports said an altercation developed at the checkpoint after which the 100 heavily armed suspects abducted the victims and forcibly brought them to the forested area where they were slain.
Responding military units reported that they found evidence that many of the women victims were raped and subjected to other inhumane treatment, like beheading and mutiliation.
Meanwhile, the Reporters Without Borders joined local media and international groups in condemning the killing of the 12 Filipino journalists who were among those confirmed killed in Maguindanao, saying:
“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss in one day. We have often condemned the culture of impunity and violence in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao. This time, the frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodbath.â€
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NO TO POLITICAL DYNASTY!!!!
Political dynasty should be strictly prohibited in our country. Many politicians of today monopolize the politics on their respective provinces, like the Ampatuan of Maguindanao, Josons of Nueva Ecija, Magsaysay and Gordon of Zambales, Roman and Garcia of Bataan, Singson of Ilocos Sur, Garcia and Osmeña of Cebu, Zubiri of Bukidnon, Cojuangcos, Aquinos, Marcoses, etc.
kaya maraming namamatay at nadadamay na mga inosente at walang kalaban-laban.