THE international outrage generated by last month’s massacre in Maguindanao of 57 men and women, half of them journalists, may offer opportunities to make progress in the areas of justice, security and peace, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in its latest update.
The Philippines: After the Maguindanao Massacre, the update briefing from the ICG, shows how the Nov. 23 killings were not the result of a clan feud, as widely reported, but of Manila’s deliberate nurturing of a ruthless warlord in exchange for votes.
“To call it a feud is to diminish the Arroyo administration’s role in allowing a local despot to indulge his greed and ambition, including through building up a private army in the name of fighting insurgents,” says Sidney Jones, senior adviser to Crisis Group’s Asia program.
The ICG is an international nongovernmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.
The wife and relatives Buluan Vice Mayor Esmail “Toto” Mangudadatu who were on their way to Comelec provincial office to file his candidacy for governor and journalists accompanying him were killed in the attack said to have been carried out by Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and about 100 armed followers. Amptuan is seeking the governorship in next year’s elections.
Ampatuan’s father, Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., is believed to have given the order for the killings.
“Political patronage of the Ampatuans by successive governments in Manila allowed them to amass absolute power, including the possession of a private arsenal that included mortars, rocket launchers and state-of-the-art assault rifles,” said the ICG.
The ICG report list three urgent tasks the Arroyo administration has now:
The first is to see that justice is done by trying and convicting the killers as expeditiously as possible
The second is to improve security by ending private and local funding for civilian auxiliaries to the police and military and asserting far more control over procurement and issuance of firearms.
The third is to ensure the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front moves forward. It was on the pretext of fighting the MILF that the Ampatuans built their private force.
“The massacre has opened opportunities to move forward on all these fronts”, says Jim Della-Giacoma, South East Asia project director. “The tragedy of the killings will only be compounded if those opportunities are not pursued.”
The Philippines After the Maguindanao Massacre (International Crisis Group)