Church leaders urge quick action, justice after massacre

The government must act quickly and decisively in pursing justice for massacre victims here before an ingrained culture of revenge produces anarchy, a priest has warned.

Police cover bodies with banana leaves while others work to recover more of those killed

Father Eliseo Mercado said the massacre of a convoy of people traveling to file a certificate of candidacy for a candidate in gubnatorial elections next year places the national government, the Commission on Elections and the police “in the eye of the storm.”

These bodies need to conduct an impartial investigation, arrest suspects and bring them to trial, stressed the priest, who heads the Cotabato City-based Peace Ministry and Advocacy of his Oblate congregation.

At least 57 bodies had been retrieved in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, after the massacre of Mangudadatu political clan members, supporters, lawyers and journalists traveling with them, Police Superintendent Felicisimo Khu told UCA News on Nov. 25.

Khu expects the death toll could reach 70, “judging from the number of vehicles” lying around in an open field and in two mass graves. At least 100 spent cartridge cases have been recovered from the site.

Justice will not be easy to deliver, peace advocates say. Amina Rasul, lead convener of Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, an NGO working for democracy, notes a “culture of impunity” has ruled in Maguindanao and other places in the southern Philippines where political clans have been allowed to rule.

National political leaders have supported these clans, because they help gain votes and other political benefits, Rasul said in a statement sent to UCA News.

Illegal firearms remain unchecked, she noted, citing a report of 114,189 listed firearms in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Cotabato City, geographically within Maguindanao, is the region´s capital.

The national government has perpetuated this “culture of impunity” since the time of Ferdinand Marcos, noted Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato.

As a result, he told UCA News, it can be demolished only through efforts of NGOs and other grassroots movements, not the government.

Meanwhile, local people feel threatened.

“This [massacre] is not just about elections,” Aboud Mamalundang of Shariff Aguak told UCA News. He believes the killings are part of a “cycle of murders in the continuing rido, or clan feud, between Ampatuans and Mangudadatus.

Father Eduardo Vasquez said in a radio interview on Nov. 25: “We are very concerned about the volatile situation in places in Maguindanao now.”

Workers recover bodies from the massacre site

The priest added that he had taken two seminarians to Sharrif Aguak the previous day to check on parishioners in the area.

“I am considering pulling them out now because of the dangerous situation. It´s hard here because of the revenge culture,” he said.

Father Vasquez serves in St. Theresa´s Parish, based in the Maguindanao town of Datu Piang, where Catholics live among a Muslim majority.

Some residents told UCA News they do not plan to vote in the May 2010 elections.

Engineer Norie Unas, provincial administrator of Maguindanao and spokesperson for former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., told UCA News Ampatuans will “respect and honor the results of the [government] investigation.”

Mangudadatu family members have also said they will respect the law.

Philippine National Police Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said in a televised interview on Nov. 25 that Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay is their prime suspect. “According to the initial reports, those who were abducted and murdered at Saniag (village, in Ampatuan) were initially stopped by a group led by the mayor of Datu Unsay,” Espina said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed Maguindanao, the neighboring province of Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City under emergency rule.