MANILA: At least 43 people were murdered in the lawless southern Philippines on Monday in a massacre that the military and relatives of the victims said was likely linked to a political rivalry.
Supporters of a prominent local politician in Maguindanao province and 12 local journalists were among those murdered, with some of them beheaded and mutilated, the military and relatives said.
Armed forces spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said the bodies of 21 people had been recovered, 13 of whom were women.
According to military estimates, 43 people were murdered by militiamen, said Brawner. “We believe more bodies are buried in the ground and we are trying to recover them,” he added. A massive operation was ordered to ensure the security of civilians in the area, he announced.
The murders occurred after gunmen linked to Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan abducted members of a rival political clan and the local reporters who had been traveling in a convoy on Monday morning, according to Brawner.
Before the reports of the massacre, Brawner said the leader of the militiamen who staged the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan’s sons.
The leader of the rival political clan that was attacked, Esmael Manguda-datu, had been going to file his nomination papers for the governorship of the mainly Muslim Maguinda-nao province for next year’s elections. He was not in the group of about 40 people that was abducted, apparently after he had received warnings from Ampatuan’s people not to register in the polls.
But Mangudadatu’s wife was in the group and had been intending to lodge his nomination for him.
The Mangudadatu family is known to have a long-running feud with the Ampatuans, who police say are known to control their own private army.
Mangudadatu said his wife was among those killed and that many of the victims had been mutilated. “Their private parts were showing, their heads were crushed, they were mutilated,” he told journalists, as he blamed the Ampatuan clan for the killings.
Before the bodies were recovered, Brawner confirmed gunman linked to Ampatuan had abducted the group.
“This is a gruesome massacre of civilians unequaled in recent history,” said Jess Dureza, President Gloria Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao island. “There must be a total stop to this senseless violence. I strongly recommend that a state of emergency be imposed in the area and everyone be disarmed. Anything less will not work.”
Arroyo’s adviser on political affairs, Gabriel Claudio, expressed similar sentiments. “We’re in shock and in total outrage,” Claudio said. “Justice will be served and the perpetrators punished, whoever they are.”
Amid reports from media groups that as many as 12 of the victims may have been journalists, the National Press Club of the Philippines also expressed outrage. “We condemn this brutal incident. We have this culture of impunity in Mindanao that needs to change,” club president Benny Antiporda said.
Elections in the Philippines are traditionally bloody, especially in the southern Philippines.
On May 14, about 45.5 million people will be called to choose among 87,000 candidates vying for 17,000 national and local positions, which include the 268 House of Representatives seats and half of the 24 in the Senate.
