A BUSINESS organization has urged the Arroyo administration to disarm and dismantle all private armies nationwide even as it made the government accountable for the massacre that has so far taken 57 lives in Maguindanao.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Makati Business Club chastised the government for allowing and nurturing political warlordism in the country. It also criticized Malacanang officials for their “fawning” behavior toward the Ampatuan family members who met with them after the massacre.
“The brutality, brazenness, and impunity with which the perpetrators executed their horrific crime are difficult to fathom, but become conceivable in the context of the warlord politics the current administration allowed to flourish in Maguindanao and exploited for its political ends,” the MBC said.
In the face of public outrage, the business group said, “Now, like an overindulgent parent, the government has to rein in the monsters it created.”
The MBC criticized in particular the manner by which the government has dealt with the Ampatuans in the wake of the murders.
“Secretary Jesus Dureza’s fawning ‘courtesy call’ on the Ampatuan clan does not inspire much confidence in the government’s determination to pursue the case to a complete and just resolution,” it said.
The business group called for the disarming and dismantling of private armed groups as a “long-lasting solution to political violence” and to ensure that the “political culture is no longer held captive by warlords and their hired guns.”
It said the perpetrators of the massacre “have no place in society” and that the full weight of the law must be made to bear on them.
The Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines also expressed shock over the murders, saying, “How can anyone worthy of being called a human being plan, instigate and perpetrate these brazen, unprecedented, horrendous and abominable acts that defy all sense and sensibility?”
It blamed the Arroyo administration for tolerating the culture of violence that pervades in many places in the country, especially those ruled by its political allies.
“We demand that the government act decisively–find the perpetrators, disarm them, arrest them, jail them, prosecute them and banish them from our midst,” the religious group said.