A test for GMA

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

In Maguindanao, many of the 46 bodies found as of yesterday in a hilly area in Ampatuan town are those of women.

Two days ago, the group was sent by Buluan town Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu to the provincial capital, Shariff Aguak, to file his certificate of candidacy (COC) for governor of Maguindanao.

Mangudadatu had received what he believed were credible threats that he would be killed if he filed his COC and challenged his lone rival, Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.

In interviews the other day, Mangudadatu said he tried to ask for security from the local police but was told it was not police business.

So Mangudadatu deployed the women in his family, among them his wife and sisters, accompanied by women lawyers plus a group of mostly female local journalists, without armed security escorts, to file his COC at the local office of the Commission on Elections. He guessed that like a Red Cross logo, the gender and the press IDs would be respected by armed goons.

He guessed wrong.

The convoy was waylaid on a dirt road, reportedly by about 100 men armed with guns and chainsaws. Even to jaded journalists, the brutality of the carnage was appalling. We have gruesome photos belying the claim of the police that no one was beheaded among the 46 victims found so far. That police statement is worrisome, indicating an attempt at a whitewash.

The massacre itself is horrid enough. But now the Philippines also has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of journalists murdered in the line of duty in a single incident. This kind of atrocity has not happened even in Iraq, this year’s most dangerous place in the world for journalists, or in Afghanistan, or even in lawless Somalia.

There is only one way for the country to redeem itself from this tragic disgrace, and that is to give justice to the victims.

That may be easier said than done for President Arroyo, who is seen to be beholden to the clan of the principal suspect.

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The Ampatuans belong to the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD, whose membership has steadily dropped together with the President’s popularity as the 2010 elections approach.

Since the Marcos regime when the Ampatuans aligned themselves with the martial law forces against the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front, the clan has held political power in its fiefdom. The Datu Unsay mayor’s brother, Zaldy, is the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Their father, Andal Sr., is the incumbent Maguindanao governor. The Mangudadatus themselves are related to the Ampatuans by blood and affinity.

Being a political warlord in this feudal archipelago means control over all the pillars of the criminal justice system, from the police and paramilitary forces to the prosecution service to the judiciary.

The local warlord uses public assets to build a private army. He has absolute power in his fiefdom, and woe to anyone who tries to cross his path.

Of the hundreds of journalists and left-leaning activists murdered since the restoration of democracy in 1986, almost all were killed in such fiefdoms, with the brains mostly going scot-free. We have seen how absolute power corrupts, and yet we have done little to curb this at the local level.

The same absolute power is seen as an asset by national politicians who need votes. The Ampatuans delivered the votes to President Arroyo in the controversial 2004 race, and then to the administration in 2007. In that mid-term election, the administration’s senatorial slate was clobbered throughout the archipelago, but not in Maguindanao, where Commission on Elections supervisor Lintang Bedol was a key player in delivering the votes desired by Malacañang.

The recent history of Maguindanao is such that even the state of emergency declared yesterday, though necessary considering the tension in the province, has stirred suspicions that it could pave the way for vote manipulation in the 2010 elections.

Yesterday you could feel the tremor running through the Palace as officials pondered how to deal with a staunch ally. Political adviser Gabriel Claudio lamely lamented Malacañang’s failure to reconcile the differences between the Ampatuans and Mangudadatus.

The ARMM governor was the first of the Ampatuans to speak up, a full day after the massacre. His message: people should not speculate on the killers.

If the government does not want people to speculate and jump to conclusions, it should identify and arrest the perpetrators ASAP.

The Datu Unsay mayor reportedly led the massacre team himself, which was composed mostly of militiamen under the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units under the supervision of the local police. Surely at least one of these CAFGUs or police officers can be persuaded to talk. If Irish priest Michael Sinnott could be released without ransom, reportedly after relatives of some of his kidnappers were… recruited… to help in the negotiations, similar persuasive methods may be employed to solve a massacre.

People are jumping to conclusions because the first thing you look for in a crime is the motive. Who would want to stop Mangudadatu from filing his COC for governor? He has only one rival for the position, and that camp, according to Mangudadatu and even journalists who skipped coverage of the ill-fated drive to Shariff Aguak, had issued threats if the COC would be filed.

The question is whether President Arroyo is ready to throw the kitchen sink at a loyal ally, just to give justice to pesky journalists and a clan to whom she owes little political debt.