Philippines Declares Emergency After Killings

Philippines Declares Emergency After Killings
By CARLOS H. CONDE
Copyright by The New York Times and The Associated Press
Published: November 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/world/asia/25phils.html?ref=global-home


MANILA — The death toll in Monday’s election violence more than doubled to 46 on Tuesday, Philippine authorities said, as the government declared a state of emergency in two southern Philippine provinces in an effort to head off further bloodshed.

The discovery of 22 more bodies left only a few people unaccounted for among of the group of about 50 lawyers, journalists and relatives of local politicians who were abducted Monday by what witnesses said were more than 100 gunmen. At least 20 journalists were among those slain, the authorities said.

A state of emergency was declared in the contiguous provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and the city of Cotabato on the southern island of Mindanao, a region notorious for its long-running political and clan feuds, officials said.

The order, by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, gives the military and the police wider authority to arrest and detain people, and to set up checkpoints and conduct 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 two battalions to the region as well as more equipment, including helicopters.

“No effort will be spared” to bring the perpetrators to justice, Mrs. Arroyo said in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, warned Tuesday of “an outbreak of even more violence and savagery” in the absence of “swift intervention.” The emergency rule will also empower the military and police to disarm people carrying unlicensed firearms, a major problem in Mindanao during because they are typically wielded by criminal syndicates and the private armies of political warlords.

The massacre “has put this issue up front,” said Jesus Dureza, Mrs. Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao, who proposed the rule. “The government has to do what is necessary” to address the problem.

The southern Philippines has long been plagued by violence and is home to well-established Communist and Muslim insurgencies. A peace agreement with one of those groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, broke down in 2008, leading to widespread fighting until a new cease-fire was reached in July.

The United States sends $1.6 billion annually in military and economic aid the Philippines, mostly of it aimed at the insurgencies in Mindanao, particularly the Islamist group Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to Al Qaeda.

However, the authorities say this week’s election violence bears no relation to those groups but is rooted in rivalries among local clans that the government has empowered as a way of combating the insurgents. One of those clans, the Ampatuans, is considered the closest political ally 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 implicated supporters of the current Maguindanao governor, Andal Ampatuan, in the slaughter.

Mr. Mangudadatu said that about 100 armed men had abducted the group, which included his wife, Genalyn, and other female relatives. They 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, never thinking they would come to harm.

The Ampatuans, who have not made any public statement since the killings, and the Mangudadatus are just two of the hundreds of political dynasties all over the Philippines that struggle for control during elections.

Mr. Mangudadatu attributed the attack to his decision to challenge the governorship of Maguindanao. Mr. Ampatuan, the governor, is the patriarch of his clan, which has dominated politics in the province for decades.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for press freedoms, joined the chorus of voices denouncing the massacre. “Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” the group said.

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Hong Kong.