Ampatuan Massacre 2

Andal Ampatuan Jr., the prime suspect in Monday's massacre, is currently detained at the National Bureau of Investigation after "submitting" himself to authorities. In the meantime, more bodies have been unearthed in Barangay Salman, bringing the death toll to 64.

In the past few days, witnesses have begun to come forth with their accounts of what happened, coloring the landscape, which was alien to our imaginations. All the women were raped, one gunman said. They were merely following orders, another said. Their orders were to kill everybody.

Justice chief Agnes Devanedera said the women were discovered with their pants down and with shots fired into their genitals. Based on some tissue reactions observed in autopsies, a forensics expert suggested that some of the victims may have still been alive when they were thrown into the shallow grave and covered with earth.

It's very difficult to process all the information that is coming out.

Ampatuan Massacre 1

Mindanao Massacre

I'm trying to react to the massacre in Mindanao of women, journalists and civilians.

It's been described as the worst incident of political violence in the country and the bloodiest day for journalists in world history. Bodies are still being dug up from a hillside grave where over 50 women, journalists and civilians were killed and buried.

The convoy, led by Buluan Mayor Esmael Mangundadatu's wife and sisters, was waylaid on its way to Sharif Aguak to file Mangundadatu's certificate of candidacy for Maguindanao governor. The mayor had received threats from a rival clan that he would be killed or kidnapped if he filed the COCs himself. Believing that the Amaptuans, adhering to Koranic code, would not harm women or civilians, the group was dispatched.

I try to imagine the convoy of seven or eight vehicles traveling through the lonely road before being ambushed by a small army of 100 or so armed men. How the group might have been forced out of their vans and what the victims might have been thinking as they watched their colleagues and relatives assaulted, killed and dumped in a waiting grave prepared by a government backhoe.

It's difficult to imagine. But it happened, in broad daylight.

Deadliest Country For Journalists

It's no secret that journalists are regularly killed in the Philippines. International groups have tagged the Philippines as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. Monday's bloodbath probably pushes us to the top. It's also no secret that election-related violence and clan wars are common, particularly in the country's south.

But Monday's incident is mindboggling in the sheer brazenness in which it was committed.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has of course issued the obligatory vow to pursue the killers and bring them to justice but like so much else that spews from her mouth, they seems like empty promises. It's probably more difficult to take her seriously when you know that the Ampatuans are her political allies who are largely considered to have delivered her Maguindanao in the previous election.

The incident is disturbing on so many levels, but maybe our outrage also reveals that for too long we have been complacent about the situation in Mindanao. Monday's bloodbath revealed a level of savagery that is simply incomprehensible and I think frightens us all.

Certainly we have been aware that the south operates according to its own laws and certainly we have heard the outcry of journalists clamoring for justice for colleagues killed in the line of duty. Maybe we became desensitized to news of a provincial journalist being ambushed by motorcycle-riding gunmen here and there.

Certainly, the degree to how much the masterminds believed they could get away with was influenced by how far we have we turned our heads in the opposite direction in the past. I think for this, the scale of the carnage is even more disturbing.

* photo belongs to rightful owners

At The 'Global City'

Was headed to Market Market a few days ago. While waiting in line to enter the parking lot, this is what I saw:

A modified tricycle had been pulled over by a security guard. The tricycle was driven by a man wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Inside the carriage were three or four women, a child and another man. The middle-aged women were dressed in jeans, colorful blouses and a touch of makeup. The child with them might have been about 10 or 11 years old. He was a bit chubby and wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The women leaned out listening to the guard speak, their eyes wide as they clutched their purses to their bodies. I couldn't hear what was being said.

This is what I thought:

I imagined that they were out on a family day trip. Perhaps the women work in blue-collar jobs and had spent the morning dressing up and applying makeup, excited for a day out at the mall. Maybe it was an excursion they had been planning for a while. Perhaps the tricycle was the only vehicle they had. Maybe it's used for their husbands' delivery business. It is a very functional vehicle – the type usually used for delivering water or LPG canisters. Unfortunately, I don't think it's the sort of vehicle that is allowed inside the Global City. I thought that perhaps the family felt embarrassed as car after car passed by them to enter the parking lot. Maybe the security guard was telling them that they had to leave the premises and they were trying to convince him to just let them park as they were only meters from the parking lot.

The whole thing just made me sad.