What Do You Think?

[jerrys1960]

The Philippines is noted for corruption at all levels as noted in the UN report that ranked as the most corrupt country in the world.

However the following surprises me that more effort is not going into shutting down political leaders that believe killing your opposition and their supporters is acceptable.

The following is an article from msn news 11/23/09.
http://news.ph.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3716107

21 dead in Philippine hostage crisis

Twenty-one people who were among a group of local politicians and journalists abducted in the southern Philippines on Monday have been found dead, the region's military chief said.

Twenty-one people who were among a group of local politicians and journalists abducted in the southern Philippines on Monday have been found dead, the region's military chief said.

"Our army troopers have reached the area where the vehicles and those held were taken... they were shot by the armed men," Major General Alfredo Cayton said in a radio interview.

"We have recovered 21 bodies. Our men are continuing to scour the area to find the others."

Cayton said he could not yet confirm who carried out the killings.

But armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said earlier that gunmen linked to a powerful politician had seized 40 people, including his political rivals and 20 local journalists.

Among those taken were the wife of a mayor in Maguindanao province, Esmael Mangundadatu, his aides and supporters, according to Brawner.
"We have alerted our troops to conduct pursuit operations. This is a law enforcement operation," he told AFP before Cayton reported the 21 deaths.

The journalists were accompanying Mangundadatu's group to a local elections office to file his candidacy for governorship of the predominantly Muslim Maguindanao province in the May 2010 vote when they were seized by the gunmen.

The Mangundadatu clan is known to have a long-running feud with the family of Maguindanao's incumbent governor Andal Ampatuan, who police say is known to control his own private army.

Brawner said there were about 100 gunmen, most of whom were militiamen deputised as government guards by Ampatuan's family.

Brawner said the leader of the militiamen who staged the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan's sons. Ampatuan was not immediately reachable for comment.

Revenge killings and clashes among rival political families are common in Maguindanao and other parts of Mindanao island, where unlicensed firearms proliferate and parts of which are lawless.

Islamic militants on Mindanao have also been waging a separatist rebellion for decades.

[troach]

Here is a follow up on the story you posted.

Copied from yahoo news 11/24/2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_hostages_killed;_ylt=Ak30Fqo5JsHk9JxhxOj1KgJvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2ZWhjNnF2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTI0L2FzX3BoaWxpcHBpbmVzX2hvc3RhZ2VzX2tpbGxlZARjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzEEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDZmlsZS0taW50aGlz

Philippines declares emergency after 46 killed

AMPATUAN, Philippines - The Philippine president placed two southern provinces under emergency rule Tuesday as security forces unearthed more bodies, pushing the death toll to 46 in some of the deadliest election violence in the nation's history.

Police and soldiers found 22 bodies in a hillside mass grave Tuesday, adding to the 24 bullet-riddled bodies recovered near the scene of Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna of the Central Mindanao region.


This southern region of the Philippines is wracked by violent political rivalries, in addition to a long-running Islamic insurgency, but the killings have shocked this Southeast Asian nation. One adviser to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has described the massacre as the worst in the country's recent history. A media rights watchdog also says that it appears to be the world's worst mass killing of journalists, with as many as 20 reportedly among the dead.

Dozens of gunmen abducted the group of journalists, supporters and relatives of a gubernatorial candidate as they traveled through Amputuan township Monday to file candidacy documents in the provincial capital for May 2010 elections.

The gubernatorial candidate, Ismael Mangudadatu, who was not a part of the convoy, accused a powerful political rival from the Amputuan clan of being behind the slayings. There is a longstanding bitterness between the two families.

Mangudadatu's wife, Genalyn, and his two sisters, were among the dead.

The bodies found in the grave, about six feet (two meters) deep, were dumped on top of one another. They included a pregnant woman. Grieving relatives helped identify their loved ones before they were given the bodies, covered by banana leaves, for burial.

Officials were still trying to determine the exact number of people intercepted by the gunmen and whether any had survived. Authorities have said the convoy comprised about 40 people, but Cataluna said at least five other people were still missing.

Arroyo declared an emergency in the provinces of Maguindanao and nearby Sultan Kudarat, allowing security forces to conduct random searches and set up checkpoints to pursue the gunmen.

Arroyo said she ordered police and the military "to conduct immediate, relentless pursuit against the perpetrators to secure the affected areas."

"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.

The emergency will remain in place until the president is confident that law and order have been restored in the region, her spokesman Cerge Remonde said.

Police and Joy Sonza, head of a small private TV station, UNTV, identified at least three journalists among the dead.

Noynoy Espina, vice chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said in all, at least 20 journalists were among those killed, based on reports from union chapters in the area.

If confirmed, it would be the "largest single massacre of journalists ever," according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

More than 100 journalists, many wearing black shirts and black arm bands with the words, "Stop Killing Journalists," staged a protest against the killings in Manila. Another 200 of their colleagues also denounced the massacre in southern Davao city.

The government stressed that it would go after the culprits, regardless of where the investigation leads.

"No one will be untouchable," Remonde told reporters.

National police chief Jesus Verzosa relieved Maguindanao's provincial police chief and three other officers of their duties and confined them to camp while they are investigated. One of the police officers was reported to have been seen in the company of the gunmen and pro-government militiamen who stopped the convoy, police said.

Such militiamen are meant to act as an auxiliary force mobilized by the police or military to fight rebels and criminals, but often they act as private enforcers of local warlords.

Mangudadatu said Tuesday that four witnesses had told him the convoy was stopped by gunmen loyal to Andal Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor belonging to a powerful clan and his family's fierce political rival.

He refused to name the witnesses or offer other details.

"It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole (for the bodies)," Mangudadatu said.

The Ampatuans could not be reached for comment.

The region, among the nation's poorest and awash with weapons, has been intermittently ruled by the Ampatuan family since 2001. It is allied with Arroyo.

Arroyo's political adviser Gabriel Claudio said he was meeting with Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where Maguindanao province is located, to try to mediate in the long-running rivalry between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus.

He said the most important thing was to ensure there was no more violence.

"There has to be swift and decisive justice," Claudio said.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The last elections in 2007 were considered peaceful, even though about 130 people were killed.

The decades-long Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s.

Julkipli Wadi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said he doubted the national government's resolve in trimming the powers of political dynasties like the Ampatuans because they deliver votes during elections.

"Because of the absence of viable political institutions, powerful men are taking over," he said. "Big political forces and personalities in the national government are sustaining the warlords, especially during election time, because they rely on big families for their votes."

[troach]

A little more information.

http://ph.beta.promo.yahoo.com/purple-thumb/editors-log-article?blogid=editors_log&postid=29&viewPost=1

Philippines: A dangerous place for journalists
By Thea Alberto, Yahoo! Southeast Asia Tuesday November 24, 2009 05:31 pm PHT

The Philippines proved again it is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, following the death of at least 24 people in Maguindanao, local and international media organizations said.


At least 12 journalists covering the filing of certificate of candidacy of Vice Mayor Ismael "Toto" Mangudadatu, and Mangudadatu’s wife Genalyn were among those killed.

"This incident not only erases all doubts about the Philippines being the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, outside of Iraq, it could very well place the country on the map as a candidate for a failed democracy," the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said in a statement.

Authorities have linked the murders to political rival Shariff Aguak Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan, who has yet to give a statement to media outfits.

Among the journalists reportedly slain were Ian Subang (Dadiangas Times), Leah Dalmacio (Forum), Gina dela Cruz (Today), Marites Cablitas (Today), Joy Duhay (UNTV), Henry Araneta (DZRH), Andy Teodoro (Mindanao Inquirer), Neneng Montaño (formerly of RGMA), Bong Reblando, (Manila Bulletin), Victor Nuñez (UNTV), Macmac Ariola (UNTV), Jimmy Cabillo (UNTV), Bart Maravilla (Bombo Radyo, Koronadal) and lawyers Cynthia Oquendo and Connie Brizuela, according to a statement from University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC), citing reports.

"This is the darkest day in the history of journalism in the Philippines, which, outside of Iraq, has topped the tables of countries where journalists are most at risk in recent years," said the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Reporters Without Borders also condemned the ongoing culture of impunity in Mindanao, a region more known for extremists and clan wars.

"We have often condemned the culture of impunity and violence in the Philippines, especially Mindanao. This time, the frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodbath. We call for a strong reaction from the local and national authorities," Reporters Without Borders said.

Philippines' Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility however reminded journalists to steer clear of any danger.

"We affirm that it is the media’s crucial task to provide the citizenry the information it needs so it can make such decisions as to who to vote for as well as others related to its well-being and safety. We reiterate, however, that no story is worth the life of a single journalist," CMFR said in a statement.

Journalism instructors from the UP CMC meanwhile lambasted the government for its supposed failure to disband local politicians’ private armies.

"The Department of Journalism of the U.P. College of Mass Communication holds the Arroyo government accountable for the continuing state of lawless violence in Maguindanao and other parts of the country," the UP CMC added in a statement.

They said that "while the massacre was being perpetrated, the President’s chief political adviser was in fact shaking hands with the Ampatuans in Malacañang yesterday, even as the PNP chief for Maguindanao refused to respond when the victims were calling him up by cell phone."

"We need a strong and urgent response from the Philippine government and the international community," added Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.