21 bodies of Maguindanao kidnap victims found
DAVAO CITY (3rd Update) -- The military confirmed that 21 bodies of the 44 people kidnapped in Maguindanao province, including the wife and sister of a town vice mayor, were recovered Monday afternoon.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, upon hearing the news, ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to run after the perpetrators of the massacre, which Buluan, Maguindanao Vice Mayor Ishmael “Toto” Mangudadatu claimed is politically motivated.
AFP spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr. confirmed to the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) that 13 female and eight male bodies were found by members of the Army's 601st Infantry Brigade around 4:30 p.m., seven hours after the victims were seized in Ampatuan municipality.
Brawner said they are still searching for more bodies.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Assemblyman Troy Mangudadatu, the vice mayor’s younger brother, said he saw 21 bodies in a hinterland area in Ampatuan town, some of whom have been buried on the ground. The bodies, he said, were riddled with bullets.
"Yong mga bangkay binabantayan ngayon ng mga sundalo (The soldiers are now guarding the bodies)," he said.
The young Mangudadatu, in an interview over ABS-CBN Davao, said the bodies were recovered in a shallow grave in Barangay Dikalungan in Ampatuan.
The grave reportedly contained bodies of the victims, some of whom were buried alive.
In a radio interview, Vice Mayor Mangudadatu identified those abducted as his wife Genalyn; lawyer Concepcion Brizuela, lawyer Cynthia Joquindo and her father; Mangudadatu's elder sister Eden and youngest sister Farida; Rowena Mangudadatu; Manguba Bai Mangudadatu, Toto's aunt; mediamen Ian Toblan; Leah Dalmacio; Gina dela Cruz; Marites Cabutas; Bart Maravilla of Bombo Radyo Koronadal; Joy Duhay; Henry Araneta of dzRH Cotabato; local newspaper publisher Andy Teodoro; Bong Reblando, Manila Bulletin correspondent; Mac-Mac Areola; Jimmy Cabillo; Neneng Montano of dxCP-General Santos; and relative and supporters Rasul Daud, Eugene Dojillo, Wahida Ali Kaliman, Farida Sabdula, Zorayda Vernan, Victor Nunez, a certain Unto, Zaida Abdul, Pinky Balayman, Ella Balayman, Rahima Piopo, Farina Mangudadatu, one Chito, Abdula Hajji, Patrick Pamansan, Meriam Calicol, and eight others who have to be identified as of this posting Monday.
The bodies of those killed will reportedly be brought home Tuesday and will undergo autopsy.
The perpetrators’ identities are still unclear but relatives of the victims blamed political rivals.
Brawner told ANC that they received reports the leader of those who staged the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan's sons. The Ampatuans were not immediately available for comment.
The Mangudadatus were long-time allies of the Ampatuans, whose patriarch, Andal Ampatuan, is governor of Maguindanao.
The Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus are former political allies, but reportedly had a recent falling out.
The senior Ampatuan is no longer running for governor in 2010, which has opened the field for other contenders -- including Mangudadatu -- to contest the province's top elective post.
Vice Mayor Mangudadatu, in a television interview, said he sent his wife and relatives to Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao’s capital town, to file his certificate of candidacy (COC) at the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) provincial office.
The vice mayor was set to file his COC Monday, but instead of him, he directed his wife to do it for him.
He said his wife called him around 9:30 a.m. to say an armed group flagged down their convoy on their way to Shariff Aguak.
He said his wife's parting words over the phone was about the armed men slapping them around and commanding them to swallow the COC forms.
About 100 gunmen had stopped the convoy, Brawner said.
Condemning the incident, President Arroyo ordered Acting Defense Secretary Norbeto Gonzales and Acting Armed Forces chief Rodrigo Maclang to fly to Maguindanao Tuesday to personally oversee the military action against the abductors.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Arroyo "condemned in the strongest terms the violence in Maguindanao" and ordered the government forces to conduct immediate and relentless pursuit of those responsible for the abduction and killing, and to secure the affected areas.
"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law. Civilized society has no place for this kind of violence," Arroyo said as quoted by Remonde.
He said the President also assured that the rule of law will be restored in the area and that lawless elements will be neutralized.
He added that the military, through the 601st Infantry Brigade, has already set up checkpoints and chokepoints "to preserve peace in the area".
Additional troops have also been deployed to further secure Maguindanao, Remonde added.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), for its part, demanded Monday “justice for our colleagues and all the other victims” of the massacre in Maguindanao province.”
According to the group, the incident “not only erases all doubts about the Philippines being the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, outside of Iraq, but it could very well place the country on the map as a candidate for a failed democracy.”
"Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day," Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
"The frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodshed," it said.
Philippine elections are particularly violent in Mindanao because of the presence of armed groups, including Moro rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.
The decades-long Moro insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s.
But a presidential adviser, Jesus Dureza, said Monday's massacre was "unequaled in recent history."
"There must be a total stop to this senseless violence," he said, recommending that a state of emergency be imposed in the area to disarm all gunmen. "Anything else will not work."
National elections are scheduled for May 2010.
(Malu Cadelina Manar/With NCB/Sun.Star Davao/AP/Sunnex)
21 bodies of Maguindanao kidnap victims found
Originally Posted by pinoyapache
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