Philippine Official Says Victims Were Sexually Mutilated

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: November 27, 2009

DAVAO CITY, the Philippines — Most or all of the 22 women among the 57 people massacred Monday in the southern Philippines were sexually mutilated, the authorities said Friday, adding grim details to the catalog of horrors that has already emerged.

“Even the private parts of the women were shot at,” the justice secretary, Agnes Devanadera, said on national television. “It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women.”

While work continued to identify all the dead, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that it appeared that 30 journalists and their assistants had been killed. About a dozen of the victims were the relatives, lawyers or supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician whose determination to challenge the entrenched Ampatuan clan in a gubernatorial election apparently touched off the violence.

Investigators said that the rest of the victims, perhaps as many as 15, happened to be stopped at a checkpoint along the highway in Ampatuan, a town in Maguindanao Province, when the convoy of Mangudadatu supporters and journalists was stopped by police officers and militiamen loyal to the Ampatuans. They were killed to eliminate witnesses, investigators said.

Ms. Devanadera said that several of the men accused of taking part in the slaughter had surrendered and offered to testify. Though the killings violated a traditional custom against harming women, the men seemed to be troubled more by the deaths of the journalists and the bystanders.

“They are bothered by their conscience because they thought that only the Mangudadatus would be shot,” Ms. Devanadera said.

Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor who is suspected of having ordered the killings, turned himself in Thursday, protesting his innocence. He is expected to be charged with murder next week. Ms. Devanadera told The Philippine Daily Inquirer that Mr. Ampatuan’s brother Zaldy and his father, Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan patriarch, were also under investigation.

Mr. Mangudadatu’s wife, Genalyn, his two sisters and two lawyers working for him were among the women who were mutilated and murdered. He said on Thursday that his wife had been shot “in her private parts.”

Ms. Devanadera said that the zippers of the women’s pants had been undone and that some of the women had had their pants pulled down. She said the authorities were still trying to determine whether the women had been raped, but “it is certain that something bad was done to them.”

Felicisimo Khu, a police superintendent, said Wednesday that the women’s bodies had been found separate from the men’s.

At least one witness, according to Ms. Devanadera, told investigators that Andal Ampatuan Jr. was on the scene giving commands but that it was not clear whether he fired a gun.

On Friday, Mr. Mangudadatu, leading a 50-vehicle convoy guarded by soldiers and heavily armed police officers, finally filed his certificate of candidacy to run for governor of Maguindanao — precisely what the others were on their way to do when they were murdered. “I had to do it,” he said in a telephone interview on Friday. “I owe it to my dear wife, to my family, to my supporters and to all those journalists who died while doing their job.”

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been under intense pressure to pursue and prosecute the killers. The Ampatuan family is her closest political ally in the southern Philippines and played a critical role in her 2004 election victory. Her government has assisted the Ampatuans and other area clans in building potent militias to combat the secessionist and Islamist insurgencies that have plagued the region.

On Friday, she ordered Interior Secretary Reynaldo Puno to take direct control of the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, a collection of provinces on and near the island of Mindanao, and to suspend local, police and military officials if necessary to proceed with the investigation.

A military spokesman said Friday that two ground commanders of the armed forces in Maguindanao had been relieved of their commands. The military on Thursday took control of the provincial capital, Shariff Aguak, and other towns, a day after disarming dozens of militiamen employed by the Ampatuans.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the largest media group in the country, urged the government on Friday to form a special court to try the suspects. “This is to help ensure that no whitewash will happen and to identify the roots and those responsible for this unimaginable crime,” said Nestor Burgos Jr., the group’s chairman.

Ampatuans ‘rule absolutely’

Suspect in Philippine Election Killings Surrenders

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: November 26, 2009

SHARIFF AGUAK, the Philippines — A politician identified as the prime suspect in the massacre of more than 50 people this week who surrendered to the authorities on Thursday is expected to be charged Friday with multiple murders in the worst carnage in the country’s long history of election-related violence.

The politician, Andal Ampatuan Jr., the mayor of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao, a strife-torn province in the south, turned himself in to the military and to Jesus Dureza, an adviser to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He was then transferred by helicopter to General Santos City, where prosecutors are expected to file formal murder charges in connection with the deaths of 57 people whose bodies were recovered from mass graves.

Mr. Ampatuan, who is part of a powerful regional clan that has been closely allied with President Arroyo, denied the accusations.

“There is no truth to that,” Mr. Ampatuan replied when asked by reporters at the General Santos City airport whether he was involved in the killings. “The reason I came out is to prove that I am not hiding and that I am not guilty.”

If convicted, he could face life imprisonment without parole, said the justice secretary, Agnes Devanadera, who flew into General Santos to take Mr. Ampatuan into custody.

Mr. Dureza brought more than a dozen military trucks filled with troops and two air force helicopters to Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao, for the surrender. When Mr. Ampatuan arrived, he was accompanied by his brothers, his wife and children as well as supporters who wailed and gave the thumbs-up sign as the helicopter lifted off.

A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, said Thursday that 20 other suspects had been arrested in connection with the massacre, Reuters reported.

The killings appeared to be linked to an electoral challenge to the Ampatuan clan by the Mangudadatu family. Esmael Mangudadatu, the deputy mayor of the small town of Buluan, is planning to run for governor of Maguindanao next year, a position that Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. is believed to have promised his son. The victims were abducted while on their way to file paperwork to register Mr. Mangudadatu as a candidate.

The bodies recovered so far included members of the Mangudadatu clan, which controls a province just to the south of Maguindanao; at least 18 journalists; and several women who went along in the belief that the militias, following custom, would not hurt them.

As the scope of the massacre became clear, the Arroyo administration promised a swift investigation. The president “is enraged by these barbaric acts,” said a spokesman, Cerge M. Remonde. “She has literally thrown the full force of the law and has mobilized the security and police forces of the state to go after the perpetrators.” Mrs. Arroyo also declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and an adjoining province this week.

Mrs. Arroyo came under intense pressure to go after the Ampatuans, with her opponents accusing her of treating her allies with too much leniency. Her political party expelled Mr. Ampatuan, his father and his brother Zaldy, the governor of an autonomous Muslim region, on Wednesday.

“This is unprecedented and historic,” said Kim Bagundang, a Maguindanao resident and the president of the nonprofit Liguasan Youth Association for Sustainable Development, noting that the people of this town had never witnessed a member of the clan seemingly vanquished. “This province and this town” — which is run by a cousin of Mr. Ampatuan — “is their kingdom. They rule absolutely.”

Critics have attributed the massacre to the power of the Ampatuan dynasty in this troubled province. Until this week, Andal Ampatuan Sr., the governor, maintained a private militia of more than 200 men, military officials have said. He treated the province as his own domain, they say, carving out new towns and letting his sons run them. One such town is Datu Unsay, which he created. His son, who is known commonly as Datu Unsay, became mayor, and the town was named for him.

The army announced on Wednesday that it would disband the 200-member militia, and it deployed 500 extra troops from the central Philippines to Maguindanao, which is part of the long-troubled region of Mindanao.

Details emerge in Philippines

Death toll rises to 57 in attack police describe as very well planned

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: November 26, 2009

SALMAN, Philippines — As the toll in what is now considered the Philippines’ worst case of election violence rose to 57 on Wednesday, the authorities focused their suspicions on a powerful clan allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

In Manila, the Arroyo administration promised a swift investigation. The president “is enraged by these barbaric acts,” a spokesman, Cerge Remonde, said. “She has literally thrown the full force of the law and has mobilized the security and police forces of the state to go after the perpetrators. We are expecting arrests and prosecution in the next 24 hours.”

The army announced that it would disband a 200-member militia controlled by the clan suspected in the Monday attack, the Ampatuan family. Later on Wednesday, Mrs. Arroyo’s political party, the Lakas Kampi CMD, announced that it had expelled the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, Andal Ampatuan Sr., and two of his sons, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Jr. and Zaldy.

The army also deployed 500 extra troops from the central Philippines to the province of Maguindanao here on the southern island of Mindanao, an area that is home to decades-long Muslim and communist rebellions as well as fiefdoms ruled by powerful families.

As the authorities continued to search for bodies, they unearthed 11 more Wednesday on a grassy hilltop overlooking this village, not far from another mass grave with 46 of the victims — most of them members of the rival Mangudadatu clan, accompanied by 18 journalists.

The killings appeared to be directly linked to an electoral challenge to the Ampatuans mounted by the Mangudadatu family, which is based in the same province. But they were rooted in a long-established political system where the national government has supported and sometimes armed families to curb the influence of Muslim and Communist insurgents. Families have often ended up clashing in feuds called “rido” that can grow so violent that they regularly send ordinary residents fleeing as refugees.

Investigators have yet to name suspects in the killings but are looking into allegations that members of the disbanded Ampatuan militia were involved. Led by the family patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., the governor of Maguindanao, the Ampatuans have ruled the province as their fiefdom since early this decade. Because some parts of Mindanao is a semi-autonomous Muslim region, the governor had the authority to carve up the province into smaller fiefdoms for his sons. New towns, along with new administrative offices and housing, can be seen along the main road cutting through the province.

But with elections scheduled for next May, the Ampatuans faced a challenge for governor in the person of Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of a small town called Buluan in this province. Significantly, Mr. Mangudadatu’s family clan holds the top political positions in the province just south of here, Sultan Kudarat.

Saying that he had received death threats and that the police had denied his request for an armed escort, Mr. Mangudadatu told the Philippine news media that he sent his wife and female relatives to file his candidacy papers before the deadline at the end of the month. He said he believed that, following traditional custom, the militias would not harm the women.

Mr. Mangudadatu also invited journalists to accompany the female entourage on the way to Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao province, reasoning that “maybe they will not harm us if journalists are watching them,” said Aquiles Zonio, a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer who accompanied the entourage part of the way.

Felicisimo Khu, the police superintendent who oversaw the search for bodies on Wednesday, said that the gunmen stopped the entourage along the highway near here and drove the victims toward the hilltop here along a rough dirt road. Another police official told national television on Monday that the force members were under the control of Andal Ampatuan Jr., the governor’s son.

Mr. Mangudadatu said he received a phone call from his wife Genalyn just before she and the rest of the entourage were killed. His wife told him that they had been taken hostage by around 100 men, Mr. Mangudadatu told the Philippine news media.

The victims were shot at point blank, the men were separated from the women; vehicles were buried on one side of the hill while the victims on the other. And the gunmen seemed to have stayed a long time on the hilltop, as suggested by cooking pots found at the scene.

“They planned this very well,” Mr. Khu said, noting that the gunmen also managed to bring a backhoe whose engine was still running when soldiers arrived at the scene on Monday.

The backhoe — which the police said belonged to the provincial government — was apparently used to crush and tear apart two vehicles that were unearthed.

One of the crumpled vehicles, which had a “PRESS” sign on it, belonged to UNTV, a local television network whose members were among the journalists killed in the ambush. On the hilltop, not far from where the vehicles were excavated, pages of blood-smeared newspapers — apparently belonging to the journalists — fluttered in the wind.

Speaking for the Ampatuan clan, one of the governor’s sons, Zaldy Ampatuan, warned against a rush to judgment. “We need to give the Philippine National Police ample time to finish its investigation on this incident,” told a newspaper. “Meantime, we need to avoid speculations. We have to listen to reason, not to emotions.”

Jesus Dureza, Mrs. Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao, said he had met with the Ampatuans, who promised to turn themselves in if necessary. Mrs. Arroyo’s executive secretary, Eduardo Ermita, said that “it definitely will help if those who feel that they are already being considered as suspects to turn themselves in and cooperate with the law enforcement agencies. It will help defuse the tension.”

The two provinces that are home to the two feuding clans, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, as well as Cotabato City, remained in a state of emergency on Wednesday.

But others were skeptical that the Ampatuans, who are Mrs. Arroyo’s closest political allies in Mindanao, would be arrested soon.

“It appears that the government is handling the Ampatuans of Maguindanao with kid gloves,” said Teodoro Casiño, a congressman and critic of the president. “Lesser mortals would have been arrested and disarmed by now especially under a state of emergency.”

Norimitsu Onishi contributed reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia.

More dead found in Philippine massacre

Emergency rule declared as toll in pre-election killing spree rises to 46

By Carlos H. Conde
The New York Times
Published: Nov. 25, 2009

MANILA: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines put two provinces in the troubled south under emergency rule Tuesday following the abduction and slaughter of dozens of people at the start of the country’s perennially violent election season.

On Tuesday, the authorities said they had discovered 22 more bodies, bringing the confirmed deaths so far to 46, out of the nearly 50 people who were abducted by armed men on Monday.

The declaration of a state of emergency in the contiguous provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and the city of Cotabato is intended to stop the possible escalation of violence in a region notorious for its long-running political and clan feuds, officials said. Mrs. Arroyo’s order gives the military and the police wider discretion in arresting and detaining individuals as well as putting up checkpoints and conducting searches.

‘‘There is an urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other incidents of lawless violence,’’ said Cerge Remonde, Mrs. Arroyo’s press secretary. On Tuesday, the military sent in two more battalions to the three areas as well as more equipment, including helicopters.

Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, warned on Tuesday of ‘‘an outbreak of even more violence and savagery’’ if no ‘‘swift intervention’’ is done.

During the emergency rule, the military and the police will disarm residents who carry unlicensed firearms, according to Jesus Dureza, Mrs. Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao who proposed the rule. Unlicensed firearms are a huge problem in Mindanao and elsewhere in the Philippines during elections because they are being used by criminal syndicates and the private armies of political warlords. These firearms usually increase in number during election season, according to the police.

The massacre, Mr. Dureza said in Mindanao on Tuesday, ‘‘has put this issue up front. The government has to do what is necessary,’’ he said, referring to the firearms.

The move puts the Arroyo administration in a possible collision course with a political family in Maguindanao, the Ampatuans, who are considered the closest political allies of the president in that part of the southern Philippines.

Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan town in Maguindanao whose family is a bitter political enemy of the Ampatuans, said on national television that there were survivors who, according to Mr. Mangudadatu, pointed to supporters of the current Maguindanao governor, Andal Ampatuan, as the perpetrators.

‘‘No effort will be spared’’ to bring the perpetrators to justice, Mrs. Arroyo said in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Mr. Mangudadatu said that about 100 armed men had abducted the group — his wife, Genalyn, other female relatives, lawyers, supporters and at least a dozen journalists — who were on their way to the local election office Monday to file candidacy papers on Mr. Mangudadatu’s behalf. He said Monday that he sent the relatives to do the chore thinking they would come to no harm.

The Ampatuans, who have not made any public statement since the incident, and the Mangudadatus are just two of the hundreds of political dynasties all over the Philippines who struggle for control of their provinces during elections. Mr. Mangudadatu alleged that he was being attacked by the Ampatuans because he decided to challenge the governorship of Maguindanao from Andal Ampatuan, the patriarch of the clan that has dominated politics in the province for decades.

The massacre has been denounced all over the world, especially because of the number of journalists killed. ‘‘Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,’’ Reporters Without Borders said Monday.

In the Philippines, political dynasties die hard

In light of the death toll from Monday’s election violence, now over 40, political warlordism looms large.

By Carlos H. Conde
GlobalPost.com
Published: November 24, 2009 10:17 ET

MANILA, Philippines — Political violence on a scale never seen before has rocked the Philippines, with the brutal murders of 46 people, sparking new and grave concerns about the role of family dynasties in the country’s political system.

The victims — relatives of politicians, lawyers and several journalists — were abducted by around 100 armed men in Maguindanao province, in the southern Philippines. By Tuesday, 46 bodies had been recovered, according to police.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces under a state of emergency on Tuesday.

Many of the victims were beheaded and brutally shot and hacked, according to Esmael Mangudadatu, a vice mayor of a small town whose wife, sister and other kin were among those believed dead.

The incident blanketed the whole country with a sense of doom, made especially stark since Filipinos have been celebrating the recent victory of boxing phenom Manny Pacquiao and CNN’s selection for Hero of the Year, Efren Penaflorida, a young man who drives around a pushcart to teach poor kids how to read and write.

The gruesome violence was a brutal reality check that once again underscored just how deadly Philippine democracy can be and, perhaps more importantly, how little has been done to eliminate one of its scourges: political warlordism.

“[Monday's] outrage brings this country closer to failed state status,” said Inday Espina-Varona, editor of the Manila newsweekly Philippine Graphic. It was a “brutal and barbaric display of naked power,” said Carlos Isagani Zarate, a lawyer from Mindanao, the main region in the southern Philippines. Two of Zarate’s colleagues who were lawyers of Esmael Mangudadatu were among those presumed dead. “This is a tragic commentary of our so-called democracy,” Zarate added.

While often exalted as the epitome of U.S.-style democracy in Asia, the Philippines has not quite lived up to the hype, if we go by the violence Filipinos witness every election season. In the 2007 midterm elections, more than 100 people were killed in election-related violence. In the 2004 elections, the number of deaths was even higher, at more than 200. But nothing — Zarate said not even during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos — came close to the brutality of Monday’s attacks.

What made the incident more incendiary is the fact that at least a dozen journalists, who were covering the relatives of Mangudadatu as they went to the provincial capital to file his candidacy papers, were likewise killed, further cementing the Philippines’s notoriety as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists next only to Iraq. “Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders reacted in a statement.

Political families or dynasties, with their warlords and private armies, rule the Philippine political landscape, especially in the provinces. They are products of the Philippines’ colonial experience, with the Spanish and Americans nurturing them to protect each other’s interests. Even after the country gained independence in 1946, the system — which can only be described as feudal — persisted, with land-owning Filipino families forming their own dynasties, building their own private armies and running for public office to protect their interests.

According to the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, a Manila think tank, there are an estimated 250 political dynasties in the Philippines. Of the 265 members of Congress in 2007, it said in a report that year, 160 of them belonged to these powerful families.

In the same report, the center said these political dynasties almost singlehandedly engendered a culture of election fraud. “Fraud recycles the political dynasties and keeps them in power. It breeds generations of cheaters and manipulators, corrupt politicians, mediocre executives, bribe takers, absenteeism in Congress,” it said.

Apart from fraud, these dynasties flourish because Filipinos tend not to vote according to class, ethnicity, religion or even ideology. As a result, the Filipino family has become “the most enduring political unit and the one into which, failing some wider principle of participation, all other units dissolve,” wrote Brian Fegan, an American anthropologist and historian, in his book “An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines.”

Monday’s violence is typical of the dynamic between Filipino political dynasties. The victims, the Mangudadatus, are themselves a powerful political clan in at least two Muslim provinces in Mindanao. Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan town, is challenging the governorship of Maguindanao province whose governor, Andal Ampatuan, belongs to the Mangudadatus’ main political rival. Esmael Mangudadatu alleged on Monday that the Ampatuans launched the attack to frustrate his attempt to become governor, which is perhaps the most important office that a political dynasty should have in order to remain in power.

Prior to this incident, there had been violent attacks perpetrated by either side and Esmael Mangudadatu, in television interviews on Monday, admitted that he had sent his wife and other female relatives to file his candidacy for him, thinking that his opponents would not harm women. He was wrong: The military says 13 of the 21 bodies they recovered Monday were those of Mangudadatu’s women relatives as well as his two women lawyers.

What made this case even more politically intriguing is the fact the Ampatuans are allies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. They have thrived in Maguindanao largely because of Arroyo’s patronage.

In the 2004 elections, Andal Ampatuan, who was already governor at the time, publicly promised to Arroyo that he would deliver most of Maguindanao’s votes for her and her party. He did, with two of the towns they controlled delivering zero votes to Arroyo’s opponent — sparking allegations of massive election fraud. In fact, the allegation that is hounding Arroyo — that she cheated her way to the presidency in 2004 — had its beginnings in Maguindanao province, with the Ampatuans allegedly behind the whole thing.

The Ampatuans had denied the election fraud charge. They have not issued any statement to refute the recent attacks, while Arroyo has promised to investigate the carnage and bring the perpetrators to justice.

In any case, there has always been a call over the years for government to dismantle these private armies. The latest one was sounded off by Amnesty International in a statement on Monday. “The government must prohibit and disband private armies and paramilitary forces immediately,” said Donna Guest, the group’s deputy director for Asia-Pacific.

Political movements have also been launched to break the stranglehold of political dynasties on Philippine democracy. These have had some few successes but, overall, the dynasties still rule.

In fact, Arroyo herself has demonstrated that a powerful political family is crucial to survival in the rough-and-tumble world of Philippine politics. Her two sons and her sister- and brother-in-laws are all members of congress. Her allies even created a new district in one province so that one of her boys can run there.

21 Filipinos Are Reported Dead in Election Violence

By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: November 23, 2009

MANILA — In one of the worst incidents of election- related violence in the Philippines in recent memory, a group of more than 40 people — including lawyers, journalists and relatives of a local politician — were kidnapped by armed men Monday, and military officials said at least 21 of them had been killed.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, a military spokesman in Manila, said 21 bodies had been recovered in Maguindanao, a province on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines that has often been wracked by election violence. Thirteen of the dead were women, according to the military. Twenty-two people were unaccounted for, according to military officials.

Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton, a security official in the province, said in a radio interview that the victims had been shot. But relatives of most of the victims said at least 30 abductees had been killed and many of them beheaded by a group of about 100 men.

Jesus Dureza, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao, recommended that a state of emergency be declared on Maguindanao Province.”Everyone should be disarmed. Anything less will not work,” he told reporters in the south.

The victims were reportedly stopped on their way to an election office to file candidacy papers for Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of the town of Buluan, who plans to run for governor of Maguindanao. Mr. Mangudadatu said on ABS-CBN television that his wife, his sister and several other female relatives had been in the group and that he had received confirmation that they had been killed.

He said they had been filing his candidacy documents in the hope that women would not be attacked. Lawyers and reporters accompanied the group, although the military did not identify the bodies they had recovered.

“We believe more bodies are buried,” Colonel Brawner said, according to Reuters. “Unfortunately, the killing happened before our troops got there.”

Mr. Mangudadatu’s uncle, Pax Mangudadatu, the governor of Sultan Kudarat Province, said the deputy mayor’s supporters had been attacked by backers of Andal Ampatuan, the current governor of Maguindanao. The families are bitter political enemies.

The governor did not issue an immediate comment about the attack.

The filing of candidacy documents for the local and national elections, scheduled for next May, began Friday. The official campaign period begins a few months before the elections.

Attacks on candidates and supporters during campaign periods are common throughout the Philippines. In the 2007 local elections, nearly 100 people were killed in such attacks.

Election violence is more extreme in Maguindanao, where an Islamic insurgency and decades-old clan wars complicate the security situation. Loose firearms, many of them in the hands of criminal groups and political warlords, have worsened the situation in this and other areas.

The Arroyo administration expressed shock and outrage at the killings on Monday.

“Justice will be served, and the perpetrators will be punished, whoever they are,” said Gabriel Claudio, Mrs. Arroyo’s chief political adviser.

Carlos Isagani Zarate, secretary general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao, called the attack a “brutal and barbaric display of naked power.” Two officials with his union, Connie Brizuela and Cynthia Joquindo, both attorneys for Esmael Mangudadatu, were believed Monday to be among the dead.

Steve Rood, representative to the Philippines of The Asia Foundation, a United States-funded body that has studied the conflict in Mindanao, said the violence in the region was the result not just of the Islamic insurgency but also of the “struggles for power and prominence among families.”

Mr. Rood said he expected the national election commission to take control of security in Maguindanao Province during the elections, much as it did in the town of Abra in the north in 2007 after the assassination of a politician. In such cases, the commission has direct command over the Philippine police and the military.