The ruthless political entrepreneurs of Muslim Mindanao
Francisco 'Pancho' Lara Jr. | 24 November 2009
The Maguindanao massacre predicts the eruption of wider violence and conflict as the nation heads towards the 2010 elections. Yet to dismiss this incident as “election-related” is to miss the fundamental political and economic implications of this evil deed. The massacre is rooted in the shift in politico-economic sources of violence and conflict in Muslim Mindanao.
Who will protect us from our protectors?
Inday Espina-Varona | 24 November 2009
We have heard the usual statement of condemnation from Malacanang. They might as well condemn themselves. The Ampatuan clan played a major role in the fraud that marred the 2004 elections; the fraud that allowed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo another six years in power; the fraud that many of us chose to ignore because the alternative was another outsider-actor in Malacanang.
The Maguindanao massacre and the politics of violence
Center for People Empowerment and Governance (CenPEG)
28 November 2009
The massacre of Maguindanao that happened on Nov. 23 is traditional politics at its madness. It bared an umbilical cord that binds two powerful dynasties – the Arroyos of Malacanang and the Ampatuans, warlords of Maguindanao and the ARMM. Their ties have been nurtured by political patronage that, at its worst form, breeds a politics of violence.
TIME photo essay: A deadly massacre in the Philippines
On Nov. 23, police discovered a mass grave that held over 50 bodies — victims of the worst election-related violence in Filipino history.
Malacanang's monster in Maguindanao
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, abscbn-news
The Mangudadatus thought the formula for non-violent action in an undoubtedly crowded and messy election would be met with restraint. But the act of defiance against their political rival Andal Ampatuan, Jr., was met with the exact opposite.
Dynasty tragedy
Editorial, Philippine Daily Inquirer
The shock we all feel over the unprecedented, indeed unimaginable scale of the massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao is also, and traumatically, the shock of recognition. We realize: This is what happens when power becomes absolute.
Shattering the shield
Lourdes M. Fernandez, Business Mirror
November 23, 2009 has shattered one of those most important traditions—not just leaving orphans among the families of the dozens killed in Maguindanao, but cutting off one of the most potent tools that a free press has wielded everywhere, to keep democracy alive.
Carnage
Patricia Evangelista, Philippine Daily Inquirer
There were threats against the media in the days after the massacre. But on the day they ripped swollen bodies out of Ampatuan soil, there were photojournalists lining the crest of the cliff like an honor guard, long lenses glinting in the sun. There was a cameraman who stepped away from a tripod to wipe away tears, a veteran in an orange hat with an arm around an orphan. It was both tribute and promise.
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