1. Arroyo declares state of emergency
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday put parts of the troubled southern Philippines under emergency rule following a massacre of at least 24 people there, her spokesman said.
Spokesman Cerge Remonde said the proclamation covered the province of Maguindanao, where the massacre occurred on Monday, and two other neighbouring areas that together had a combined population of 1.54 million people.
"There is an urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other incidents of lawless violence," [??? what "other" incidents??? - ed.] Arroyo said in the proclamation, according to Remonde.
"The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are hereby ordered to undertake such measures as allowed by the constitution and by law to prevent and suppress all incidents of lawless violence in the aforesaid areas."
The state of emergency authorizes the military to impose curfews, set up checkpoints and undertake searches of homes.
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2. Maguindanao death toll rises to 46 - so the killers took the time to bury the bodies??? that was nice of them.
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines—(UPDATE 6) Bullet-ridden bodies were pulled out from shallow graves on Tuesday as troops hunted down the gunmen who massacred, according to the Philippine National Police, at least 46 people in one of the Philippines' most brutal explosions of political violence.
Police on Mindanao island pulled bullet-ridden bodies from shallow graves in this remote farming area after gunmen allegedly employed by a local political chief abducted then shot dead a group of rival politicians and journalists.
“Some bodies were strewn on the ground. Most were recovered from under lumps of earth which were stained with blood,” said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, the regional police commander.
"They were piled on top of each other. It looked as if they were buried hurriedly," said Cataluna.
The victims were among a group of more than 40 people abducted by gunmen Monday linked to Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, head of a Muslim clan who is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's ruling coalition.
The abducted group was made up of relatives and associates of Esmael Mangudadatu, the head of a rival Muslim clan in Maguindanao, plus a group of journalists, the military and police said.
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OK so the vicious killers, after brutally murdering these people, bury some of them with a backhoe that has their leader's name emblazoned across it. hmm. - ed.
3. elite police units take control of Maguindanao
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police on Tuesday took control of the entire Maguindanao to prevent a possible escalation of hostilities following Monday’s massacre of a group of local politicians, their supporters and journalists.
Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, PNP spokesman, said elite police units from the Regional Mobile Group, Special Action Force, Maritime Group and regional police offices of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and Central Mindanao were sent to augment police and military forces already in the area.
Espina said numerous police checkpoints and chokepoints were set up around the province to “control the egress and ingress there.”
He said the PNP might also implement a curfew in Maguindanao.
“The physical control (of Maguindanao) will allow us to run (after) the perpetrators as we still are in the stage of preliminary investigation,” he said in a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
“We have to restore normalcy. Everybody entering the area is being checked,” Espina added.
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4. massacre exposes brutal underbelly of Philippine politics
MANILA, Philippines—The massacre of at least 22 people in Maguindanao has exposed a brutal culture of guns, greed and money that has poisoned the Philippine political system for decades, experts said Tuesday.
The murders in the southern province Monday are feared to be only the first of many killings ahead of next year's national elections, when posts from village chiefs to the president will be up for grabs.
"This explosion of violence arises whenever there is an election," said Samira Gutoc, one of the conveners of the Young Moro Professionals, a group helping the government in peace talks with armed Muslim groups in the south.
Indeed, dozens of people are killed each election season in this impoverished and often lawless Southeast Asian nation.
Local political warlords have for generations competed for political power and the accompanying business riches that government posts offer.
These clans are well known to control private armies, who carry out assassinations and counter-attacks against rivals.
The proliferation of over 1.1 million unlicensed firearms, most of them in the hands of rebel groups or paramilitaries, contribute to the general lawlessness in many remote areas, according to police.
"Politics in Mindanao is about ownership of power. Public office is perceived as a personal, clannish thing -- a birth right, and they would spill blood for it," Gutoc said.
5. several police officials sacked after being implicated in massacre
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Two senior police officers and three other policemen have been sacked after being linked to the massacre of at least 24 politicians and journalists in Maguindanao, the Philippine National Police said Tuesday.
Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay, the deputy provincial police chief of Maguindanao, and Maguindanao police provincial director Abusana Maguid have been relieved, said PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina.
He said Dicay was relieved "after being reportedly seen at the scene of the incident” with members of some members of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit militia who are trained by the government to fight local insurgencies.
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1 comment:
AP I smell gold in SE Asia. There is too much going on and too many stories, uncredited I know, but the fact they come from all directions independently makes me sit up and stare. Indonesia, Phillipines, Taiwan and the Chinese Emperor all floating around at the moment in a tale of gold.
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