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.
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