It has nearly been two months since the Maguinadanao Massacre, when on November 23, 2009, the private army of the Ampatuans, a warlord clan allied to Philippine President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo, massacred more than 60 men and women. Due to the crime’s violence, the gruesome event has not been forgotten and remains deeply ingrained in the minds of Filipinos as one of the most barbaric, disgusting, revolting, sickening and unbelievable crimes ever committed in the Philippines. How can something like this still happen in our generation?
To those who have been in hibernation somewhere and have not heard of these mass murders, here is a brief backgrounder. On 23 November, Genalyn Mangudadatu, Vice Mayor Eden Mangudadatu of Mangudadatu town and Bai Farinna Mangudadatu, the wife and two sisters of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu went to the town of Ampatuan to register him for the 2010 gubernatorial elections for the province of Maguindanao in the Philippines. Esmael Mangudadatu, who has so many death threats on him, couldn’t register himself per sonally for fear of being killed. (The local police and the army didn’t grant him the protection that was probably due him.) The Mangudadatus thought that women would not be harmed since they hold a special place of respect in the Muslim society so they let them register Esmael. For additional protection, the three Mangudadatus were accompanied by the two female lawyers of the family, Cynthia OquendoAyon and Connie Brizuela, and many others: family members, drivers and supporters and, for safety, journalists and their assistants. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that Eden Mangudadatu was heard to say, ‘”This is women power in action. Let’s help our men chart a better future for the province.”
On their ways to the Commission on Elections, about one hundred armed men stopped the group on the highway. The group and a number of motorists (who were at the wrong place, at the wrong time) were abducted, herded off to a more secluded place, shot and buried by a backhoe in a waiting mass grave! Note that the massacred people were buried complete with their vehicles! Shades of Nazi Germany extermination of the Jews, don’t you think? It’s that the armed men were from the private militia of powerful political clan figure Andal Ampatuan, Jr., who was also supposed to run in the gubernatorial election. Ampatuan has since been charged with murder.
The crime is now being called the Maguindanao Massacre. Sixty-four bodies have been found so far, and most of them have been identified. The massacre is being reported as the largest-scale killing of journalists in history with thirty-four deaths. It was 
extremely vicious.
What was ironic is that this came just two days before the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women. The Maguindanao Massacre included at least twenty-two women who were killed. Reports are that most if not all of them were maybe raped and/or sexually mutilated. Justice Minister Agnes Devanadera says: “Even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women. The zippers of their pants were all undone. We have yet to determine whether they were raped. But it is certain that something bad was done tothem.” It is really so unthinkable! This is an outrage,” CHR Chair‑person Leila De Lima said, reacting to the initial stream of reports to reach the CHR Central Office in Manila. “Imagine... it was not enough that they were unarmed, but they had to behead women?” A visibly disturbed and upset DeLima continued, “What kind of nimals are these killers?”
The Arroyo government declared martial law in the province of Maguindanao for one week last December to supposedly run after the Ampatuans and their private army. The government also has since apprehended Datu Unsay Mayor Andal U. Ampatuan, Jr., who is now facing 41 counts of multiple murders before the sala of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes.
Other cases against him and his other supposed cohorts are still at the Cotabato regional trial court, which has jurisdiction over the election-related massacre of 57 individuals in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province. However, it remains to be seen if the he and the perpetrators will be put to justice.
A swift and impartial investigation of the Maguindanao Massacre must now be conducted and the perpetrators of this heinous crime must be charged and punished. The full force of the law must be made to bear on the killers. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must not let her political association with the Ampatuan family stand in the ways of a speedy and impartial investigation into the incident. The Philippine national government must step in and enforce the law since the local police may be vulnerable to pressure by the powerful political families in the province, so may not likely be capable of conducting an impartial probe on the matter.
In the meantime, the best thing we can do is pray for all those who were killed; and for their families and friends who are surely still reeling for the loss of their loved ones. We must also pray that justice will be served, sooner or later, but hopefully sooner.
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