As it has been widely reported, 57 people-including two human rights
lawyers and 30 journalists – were slaughtered on November 23 in
Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao. While much of the stories
and worldwide condemnation focused on the number of, and manner of the
deaths – describing them as gruesome, barbaric and animalistic amongst
others things, the Filipino people, even in this country’s war-torn
southern part, still grapple in disbelief as to how it could have
happened.

It is incomprehensible, not only to the Filipino people, but the
international community as to how, in an area with a modicum of
governance and law enforcement and the right to the protection of life
could have been so easily dismissed in a democratic state. How is it
possible that a group of over 100 armed men, reportedly led by a scion
of a powerful political clan, the Ampatuans, blocked a convoy of
vehicles of over 50 people in broad daylight, took them to a remote
hilly area, executed them and then buried them in shallow graves?

There were indications that the massacre was premeditated and
thoroughly planned; for example, the graves where the 57 dead bodies
had been buried had already been excavated using a government-owned
backhoe. Its engine was still running when the soldiers arrived at the
scene of the massacre after they had received reports of the incident.
When the soldiers arrived, dead bodies littered the scene, vehicles
used in the convoy were riddled with bullets and three of the vehicles
had been flattened and buried together with the dead bodies. (Photo:
Concepcion “Connie” Brizuela, lawyer, victim; source:
Inqiurer.net)

Before the massacre happened, some journalists had already received
information that should they persist in covering the filing of
Certificates of Candidacy of (CoC) of Esmael Mangudadatu, they would
be killed and buried. However, because they were given assurance by
Alfredo Cayton, commanding general of the Army’s 6th Infantry
Division, that they could push through telling them that area is safe,
the group decided to proceed. The group also had seriously discussed
matters on security arrangements for two hours before leaving. It was
unfortunate though that organisers and the group of journalists may
have underestimated the situation. Threats of this nature are common
in this part of the country.

Mangudadatu is a bitter political rival of one of Ampatuan’s scions,
Andal Ampatuan Jr, incumbent town mayor of Datu Unsay, a town named
after him by his father, Andal Ampatuan Sr., who is also the incumbent
provincial governor of Maguindanao. The younger Ampatuan is now
considered the prime suspect in the slaughter, according to witnesses.
After his arrest on Thursday, November 26, he is being held in
detention at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila.

The carnage left Esmael’s wife, Genalyn; his two sisters, Eden and
Farida Sabdula; several of his political supporters; two human rights
lawyers, Concepcion Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo; and 30 journalists
dead. Brizuela and Oquendo were assisting Mangudadatus’ wife, Genalyn,
to file the CoC on behalf of her husband at the provincial election
office in Maguindanao while the journalists were covering the would-be
filing. The event, in the local context, would have been a big story
for local journalists as the filing was an act upon which the
Mangudadatus, also a powerful political clan in the adjacent province,
Sultan Kudarat, would be challenging the Ampatuans for a gubernatorial
post.

The younger Ampatuan is reported to have been groomed by his father to
run as governor for the May 2010 general elections. The elder Ampatuan
is the close ally of the Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and her party; and had served as the governor of Maguindanao, a
province under the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), for
three consecutive terms as governor. Three of Ampatuans’ political
leaders were expelled from the President’s political party because of
the massacre.

The Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus are bitter rivals and powerful
political clans in the local politics. In this southern part of the
country, the notion of governing for the ‘common good of constituents,
good governance, rule of law and human rights and democracy’ has
hardly ever existed. The politicians’ motivation in running for public
office is for protecting their territory, expanding their influence
and cementing their de facto absolute control into the affairs of the
local government–from the civilian administration, to the security
forces. The security forces were there to serve the local political
elite, rather than enforcing law and order.

In Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao, the display of wealth
and power can be illustrated by the huge palaces that these political
leaders of the province have built, dwarfing the town and shanties of
their constituents. The province is one of the poorest in Mindanao,
and is a long term recipient of foreign development aid. The
constituents in remote municipalities have been for decades victims of
massive protracted displacements, killings and abductions and summary
executions either by the government or military forces in the
decades-old conflict in Mindanao. Thus, the people’s threshold to
violence is higher than other place, but the extent of this massacre
is, even for them difficult to comprehend.

That the alleged mastermind, the younger Ampatuan, was reported to
have been able to command and have given the order to kill the victims
is well established and illustrates the local government’s policy in
funding, training and recruiting militia forces. The Civilian
Volunteer Organisation (CVO) is one of the government’s militia forces
and is also accused of having been involved in the Maguindanao
massacre. The functioning of the CVO should have been under the
control and oversight of the Philippine National Police (PNP);
however, the existing system is so heavily politicized, effectively
making the police authorities underdogs of the politicians.

The top local executive has the authority to expel, appoint and
recommend, for example, who should be the head of the provincial
police and the head of the town police. The local executives also
decide whether or not the local police and its security unit should be
given budget allocations from the local government’s coffer for their
operation. This deliberately brings the policemen and security units
under the politician’s control and influence. The extent of the
policemen’s control by the politicians has been affirmed and shown
when Esmael, upon learning of the massacre, was told by the acting
head of the Maguindanao provincial police when he sought his
assistance that: “Wala kaming paki-alam d’yan, hindi namin alam ‘yan
(“We don’t care about it, we don’t know it”).

After the massacre, the PNP had to relieve six of its top officials in
Maguindanao for their alleged complicity–the chief of police of
Shariff Aguak and Ampatuan towns and three other police inspectors
from their position. According to the PNP though, they are not yet
considered as suspects, but reports indicate that one of them, was
seen by the witnesses to be present at the scene when the victims were
executed. Also, it would be difficult to accept that these top
policemen would not know of the presence of heavily armed men in their
area of jurisdiction. The national highways of these towns where the
convoy passed also had check points of only few hundred meter distance
from one place to the other – either set up by soldiers, policemen or
militia forces – thus, it is hard to believe that they would not know
of the movement of armed men, unless they were complicit or had been
co-opted.

When the convoy was blocked and the victims subsequently executed,
reason dictates that the victims may have thought the perpetrators
would not do such horrendous acts. They unfortunately walked to the
grave virtually blindfolded for reasons that their numbers and
composition – there were over 50 of them mostly women – that the
town mayor who was the prime suspect, the government’s militia forces
and armed civilians; and the policemen, who were seen by witnesses at
the crime scene were all present.

The killing of 30 journalists, mostly local journalists, is the
largest number of deaths in a single incident in the Philippines’
recent history. It has virtually crippled the press freedom in this
part of the country. The fight for press freedom and right to
information itself is a notion that local journalists had struggled to
fight for. Before the massacre, some of the journalists who were
reporting on the corrupt practices of the government officials in
these provinces were themselves subjected to threats. At least two
journalists had already been killed in the past, one of whom was
Marlene Esperat in October 2006 in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. (Photo:
journalist victims, from left to right: Marites Cablitas, Gina Dela
Cruz and Marife Montaño; source MindaNews)

As one of the eyewitnesses to the massacre said, they were just
following orders when the alleged mastermind ordered them to shoot and
kill not only the relatives of the Mangudadatus but also the human
rights lawyers, the journalist; and all of those who had joined the
convoy. This eyewitness had come out in an exclusive television
interview but is said to have gone into hiding. There are also several
other persons who had witnessed and survived the massacre but are too
frightened to come forward.

The plight of the witnesses and the survivors also exposed the
realities of the absence of any protection mechanism within the
country. At least three of the journalists who survived the massacre
sent feelers out to the Department of Justice (DoJ) informing them of
what information they had to help the investigation and prosecution of
the case, but they (the DoJ) paid no attention, according to the
survivor’s family. Like the eyewitness, these survivors too had to
take their own security measures to protect themselves. It is also not
practical to seek for a police escort since one of the policemen
relieved from his post was once assigned in the survivors’ hometown;
and given the small community of journalists there–who often covers
the police and military beats–even without exposing their names,
those who want them dead know where they can be located.

Also, how could the survivors consider asking for police protection
when, in fact, prior to covering the filing of CoCs the Mangudadatus,
had already sought police and military protection. Such request was
rejected. The military had to excuse themselves saying they were
unable to provide escorts because their troops were deployed somewhere
and that providing escorts is primarily a police duty; while the
policemen to whom the group had sought security escort for the convoy
turned out to have reportedly were complicit or had taken part to the
massacre.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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