AMPATUAN, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines placed two
southern provinces and a city under emergency rule on Tuesday after
gunmen killed 46 people in a brutal election-related massacre that has
shocked the country.
Many of the victims in the killings in
Maguindanao province were women from the powerful Mangudadatu clan.
About a dozen journalists were also among the dead.
"There is an
urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other
incidents of lawless violence," Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said
while announcing the emergency.
The adjoining provinces of
Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and nearby Cotabato City will be under
an indefinite state of emergency, which gives the military and police
wide powers of arrest and detention.
The orders were issued as
troops, using shovels and their bare hands, dug up hastily covered
graves on a grassy hillside in Maguindanao to recover the victims of
Monday's massacre. Police spokesman Leonardo Espina said 46 bodies had
been found.
A Reuters photographer at the scene saw many of the
bodies with bullet and machete wounds. Some of the dead men had their
hands tied behind their backs and one of the women was pregnant.
"This
atrocity leaves a deep wound in our national psyche," said Ralph Recto,
a former senator. "It is as if each one of us has been stabbed."
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered extra troops to the region and sacked the Maguindanao provincial police chief.
"No
effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the
perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said.
FILE NOMINATION
The
Mangudadatus, accompanied by lawyers and journalists, were on their way
to file the nomination of one of their clan in elections next May. No
men from the family were present, since they believed that women would
not be attacked by rivals.
But the convoy was held up by about
100 armed men, who herded the group away from the highway and then
attacked them with M-16 rifles and machetes.
The dead included
Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, whose husband Esmael wanted to contest the
governorship of Maguindanao against Datu Andal Ampatuan, the head of
another powerful local family.
Ampatuan, an ally of Arroyo, has
been elected governor of Maguindanao three times previously. One of his
sons is the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, an
area which covers six provinces. The town near where the massacre took
place bears the name of his family.
None of the Ampatuans made
any comment to local or foreign media. But Presidential Adviser Jesus
Dureza told television that the family was willing to answer any
questions.
No arrests have been made so far.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said investigations would be completed within a couple of days and arrests made.
"There
are no sacred cows," he told television, adding that both the Ampatuans
and the Mangudadatus were allied to the government.
"We have some information about specific names, not just those who ordered this thing, but also those who committed it."
The
election process for the May 2010 national polls began last week with
the filing of candidacies for more than 17,800 national and local
positions.
Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by
violence, especially in the south, where security forces are battling
communist rebels, Islamist radicals and clan rivalries.
Many of the rich and powerful in the region employ private armies, which are often used to telling effect during elections.
Esmael
Mangudadatu, Genalyn's husband, told radio that four people had escaped
the massacre and were under his care. "They will come out at the right
time, they are safe with us," he said.
Source : yahoo Xtra News [ Additional reporting by Manny Mogato; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Paul Tait]
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