Arroyo Imposes Emergency Rule After Mindanao Massacre

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday, November 24, imposed emergency rule on two provinces and a city in Mindanao after at least 22 people were brutally murdered a day earlier by gunmen identified with a local warlord in the worst ever election-related violence to hit the Philippines.

Dead bodies lie on the ground near their vehicles at the crime scene of a massacre of a political clan that included several journalists in Maguindanao province in Mindanao. (Reuters)

The provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City were placed under an indefinite state of emergency, which gives the military and police wide powers of arrest and detention, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told reporters.

Arroyo issued the emergency proclamation as troops discovered at least 22 bodies –14 women and eight men –with bullet and hack wounds on a grassy hillside in Maguindanao. Eight of those found dead were journalists. Some of the dead men had their hands tied behind their back while one of the women was pregnant.

“We are expecting that more bodies will be recovered today,” Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, military spokesman, told reporters.

Those who were slain were part of a group of 40 people kidnapped by gunmen while on their way to file the papers of a candidate for governor of Maguindanao in the May 2010 elections. Survivors of the massacre on Tuesday directly linked the incumbent governor, Andal Ampatuan, to the killings.

The Ampatuan clan is a known close ally of Arroyo. But on Tuesday, Arroyo ordered the “immediate, relentless pursuit” of the murderers and vowed that they would answer for their “dastardly” act.

“No effort will be spared to bring justice to victims and to hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law,” Arroyo said at the start of the Cabinet meeting in Malacanang.

Among those killed in the massacre was Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, the wife of Buluan town Vice Mayor Datu Ismail “Toto” Mangudadatu who was seeking to contest the governorship of the province from Ampatuan.

The Mangudadatus and Ampatuans are bitter political rivals in the province.

Earlier on Tuesday, Toto Mangudadatu revealed that at least four people survived the carnage, adding that the survivors all pointed to the Ampatuan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his son, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, as the ones who ordered the killings.

Mangudadatu declined to name the survivors, whom he said are in his custody and would come out at the “proper time.”

However, Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the Arroyo government does not consider the Ampatuans as the suspects in the massacre since no witnesses and evidence have come out yet. He said it was prudent to wait for the police investigation before voicing premature speculations on the mastermind of the carnage.

Lawmakers immediately condemned the senseless killings and called on authorities to go after the perpetrators and masterminds, even if they happen to be political allies of the President.

House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles said the government should set aside all political considerations and arrest the people behind the carnage at all costs even if takes the entire Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to do it.

“This is already beyond political alliances. This horrific mass murder is just beyond human comprehension and the government should use everything in its power to apprehend and prosecute those responsible for this most atrocious incident in Mindanao,” Nograles said.

Senators were also unanimous in calling for swift action to apprehend the suspects. “The President must act immediately on this shameful example of warlord-ism in Maguindanao. If she cannot uphold the rule of law, she should resign especially because the main suspect is reportedly her man,” Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. said yesterday.

At the same time, he called for the deployment of additional military troops to the area and for authorities to detain Governor Ampatuan, who supposedly is in Manila, for questioning.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said President Arroyo herself should “shoot the perpetrators if necessary.”