Philippine clan leader held over poll-related massacre

Page last updated at 05:20 GMT, Thursday, 26 November 2009

Police have taken Andal Ampatuan Jr, right, to Manila for questioning

A powerful Philippine clan leader suspected of involvement in the massacre of 57 people has been taken into custody, officials said.

Andal Ampatuan Jr had surrendered to authorities, they said. He denies organising the killings, AFP reported.

Earlier, troops and police swooped on towns on the southern island of Mindanao run by the Ampatuan family.

The massacre took place on Monday as a convoy of vehicles used by a rival politician was ambushed.

The group, involved in activities for the 2010 elections, was taken to a remote hill region, shot at close range and their bodies dumped in shallow graves.

Taken by helicopter

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said that Mr Ampatuan Jnr was taken by helicopter from his hometown in the restive Maguindanao province on Thursday morning to a nearby airport.

From there he was being flown to the capital Manila for questioning, Mr Puno said.

Police were reported to have rounded-up and disarmed a 200-member paramilitary force in Maguindanao on Thursday. They also made several arrests.

Officials named militiamen under the control of Mr Ampatuan Jr - the mayor of a town in Maguindanao - as suspects.

All police officers from one town are under investigation for the killing, AFP news agency reported, citing government officials.

Although prominent members of the Ampatuan family are allies of President Gloria Arroyo, they have been expelled from her party since the killings.

President Arroyo, who earlier declared a national day of mourning, has promised that the gunmen would not escape justice.

The BBC's Danny Vincent, in Manila, says the Ampatuans have been involved in a long-standing feud with a rival family who want to oppose them in the national and local elections.

Philippine politician Ismael Mangudadatu has claimed it was gunmen loyal to the Ampatuans who ambushed his supporters as they were travelling to register his name for the polls.

Among the dead were Mr Mangudadatu's wife, his two sisters and several key supporters, as well as at least 13 journalists who were travelling with them to witness his registration as an election candidate.

Analysts say the Ampatuans have effectively been in charge of Maguindanao for decades.

Andal Ampatuan Snr has served in the Philippines Congress and won the governorship of Maguindanao unopposed for several terms.

His son was reportedly planning a similarly unopposed run to replace his father but then Mr Mangudadatu decided to run as well.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8379990.stm

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Philippines massacre: State of emergency declared, but will Arroyo pursue justice?

On Tuesday in Manilla, protesters hold signs condemning the killing of at least 40 political supporters and journalists in the southern Philippines.
Bullit Marquez/AP

The Philippines massacre of 46 people on Monday prompts President Gloria Arroyo to declare a state of emergency in the affected province. Is she ready to take on her country's culture of political violence?

By Donald Kirk Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 24, 2009 edition

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency for parts of the southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday, after a political massacre there left at least 46 people dead.

But her strong response came amid widespread questions over whether action will be put to her words. The murders are alleged to have been arranged by one of her political allies and the Philippines has a long-standing culture of impunity for political violence.

"The government definitely has the numbers but not the political will," says Vilnor Papa, Philippine campaign manager of Amnesty International. "We have political killings. We have summary executions. This is a culture of impunity. You have seen how people from the military have gotten away with murder."

But while political murders are common in the Philippines, this was an extraordinary outrage – a brazen daylight attack in front of witnesses and with apparently no threat from police. At least a dozen of the victims were local journalists.

The killers were alleged, according to eyewitness reports broadcast on Philippine radio and television stations, to be under orders from Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of a town that bears his family name. The victims were stopped in Ampatuan, herded several miles away, and shot.
The victims had been on their way to enter the name of Ismael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of another town, as a candidate for governor. Mr. Ampatuan is vying to succeed his father, Andal Sr., as governor of the province of Maguindanao. Mr. Mangudadatu was not among the victims.
The Ampatuan family are local warlords accustomed to winning elections, in part thanks to their close relationship with Arroyo and the military. The family helped her win the vast majority of votes in the province in the 2004 presidential election. Arroyo won 100 percent of the votes in some towns in the province and at some polling stations the number of votes for Arroyo exceeded the number of registered voters.

Political warfare
On a broader level, the massacre reflected the constant struggles among factions and families. In a region that was barely subdued by the Spanish and then the Americans, warlordism has replaced feudalism, with different groups fighting for political perks and payoffs.

Ampatuan's gubernatorial rival Mangudadatu is the doyen of another powerful local family and had refused to stand down amid reported threats against his life. Thinking gunmen would be reluctant to shoot women and journalists, he sent them in a convoy to register his candidacy. His wife and two sisters were among the dead.

Arroyo's government Tuesday took pains to distance itself from the Ampatuans, denouncing the killings as "unconscionable" and declaring that no one was "untouchable." The national police chief dismissed Provincial Police Chief Zukarno Adil Dicay and three other officers. National Police spokesman Leonardo Espina told local media that Mr. Dicay had been seen with some of the gunmen earlier on Monday, before the assault.

But strong words and highly publicized manhunts have become common after political killings in the Philippines, while successful prosecutions have been rare. Some analysts are convinced the Ampatuan family will remain in power.

The fact that the government has a large number of troops in the area adds to the mystique of impunity.

Arroyo has had to make compromises with Muslim family leaders throughout the region while soldiers pursued elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, deeply ensconced in the province.

"The area is highly militarized," says Satur Ocampo, a longtime foe of the government who now serves as deputy leader of the opposition in the Philippines House of Representatives. "There's a high level of troops there. The Philippine National Police was on alert, but it's quite apparent they were unable to prevent this massacre."

Arroyo may face greater pressure to pursue justice in this case because of the uproar it has created. Since so many local journalists were killed, the government is under fire not only from the Philippines' National Union of Journalists but also from international organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"There is pressure from all sectors for the government to do something," says Girlie Padilla, secretary general of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace.

Still, Ms. Padilla has doubts. "Will they cover up for the ally who did the killings?" she asks. "That would show they would do anything to cover up for this group. We will have a hard time getting justice."

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1124/p06s01-woap.html

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Clashes with Muslim rebels in Philippines displace thousands

Fighting began after the Supreme Court halted a historic deal to expand a Muslim autonomous zone in the region.

By Huma Yusuf

posted August 11, 2008 at 9:55 am EDT

Renewed fighting between Muslim rebels and the Army in the southern Philippines has caused at least eight deaths and forced nearly 130,000 people to flee their homes. The clashes have been sparked by a controversial deal to expand a Muslim autonomous zone in the region, which was created in 1996 as part of a peace accord between the Filipino government and Muslim rebels. The fighting highlights the sectarian tensions that plague the country.

According to the BBC, troops began their attack on Sunday, after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels failed to leave North Cotabato Province, which is not included in the five-province Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Troops began their attack on Sunday, after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in North Cotabato ignored a 24-hour deadline to leave the area.

Soldiers continued to bomb Muslim rebel positions for a second day on Monday.

They regained control of two villages, and are still aiming to regain 13 others, military vice chief of staff Lt Gen Cardozo Luna told the Associated Press.

At least one soldier and seven rebel fighters have been killed since the attack began.

The fighting has caused many families to be displaced, reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a leading Filipino newspaper.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno acknowledged the situation in North Cotabato has worsened as he lamented the government's failure so far to return thousands of families who have fled the fighting.... The fighting has displaced 18,633 families or 129,000 people in the affected areas, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

According to Asia News, trouble began last week when the Supreme Court issued an order to halt the signing of a deal between the government and MILF rebels following a wave of protests throughout the Philippines. Earlier this month, government and MILF negotiators were expected in Malaysia to sign an agreement laying down new borders for the ARMM. Acting on a petition filed by Christian politicians in North Cotabato who fear losing land and power to the Muslims, the Supreme Court stopped the deal, even though the government insisted it would end the 10-year-long conflict with the Muslim rebel group.

Last month, both sides agreed to expand an existing six-province Muslim autonomous region to include 712 villages, subject to the agreement of residents in a plebiscite within a year. Some local leaders complained however about the danger of electoral fraud.

Catholics expressed their concern that a deal between the MILF and the government would lead to renewed sectarian violence and vowed to obstruct the government's plan to conclude the peace accord.

The deal would have been a major step toward the peaceful resolution of a long-running Islamic insurgency, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, reported the BBC.

A larger autonomous region is something the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has sought for decades....

The MILF is the largest of several Muslim separatist groups battling the government in the predominantly Catholic country.

Formal talks between the government and the MILF began in 2003, after the rebel group, which is thought to have around 11,000 members, signed a fragile truce with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government.

The government had given approximately 1,000 MILF insurgents until Friday morning to vacate 15 villages in five North Cotabato townships that the rebels have occupied for more than a month. Although the MILF initially agreed to the withdrawal, rebels stayed put, prompting the government to launch an assault, reports the Associated Press.

MILF rebels claim, however, that the current fighting began when the government violated a cease-fire agreement with the rebels and went against the decided upon pullout process in the North Cotabato region, reports The Daily Tribune, a Filipino newspaper.

A commander of the separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) accused the government of treachery on the agreed process for the pullout of MILF forces from occupied territories in North Cotabato and said yesterday rebel forces were staying put "no matter what."

While all the negotiations and repositioning of the MILF forces were ongoing, the government forces were actually fortifying their strength and even maneuvering, according to the MILF....

The military, in turn, said instead of an orderly withdrawal, MILF units asked to vacate several occupied barangays in five towns in North Cotabato, shot three soldiers through sniper fire, and torched houses igniting fresh fighting as thousands of villagers fled their homes in terror.

Spurring further confusion about why fighting began Sunday, MILF rebels point out that their "repositioning" within the region was not in response to the deadline mandated by the Army and was instead in compliance with a joint resolution signed with the government on Aug. 1, reports GMA News.

According to the Associated Press, scheduled elections in ARMM continued despite the violence.

About 1.5 million Filipino Muslims in the autonomous region voted under heavy security Monday for a new governor, vice governor and other posts in the regional assembly. The five-province region has a history of insurgent and factional violence, but the fighting in nearby North Cotabato did not immediately affect the election.

An editorial in The Philippine Star, another leading newspaper, highlights the importance of the local ARMM elections in the context of renewed fighting between the government and MILF rebels.

Every electoral exercise in the ARMM is held with the hope that the winners can make the promise of Muslim autonomy work to bring lasting peace and prosperity to one of the most volatile and impoverished regions in the country....

[T]he people of the ARMM need better governance from their local officials. Those who are voted into office today should not betray the trust placed in them by their constituents. The people's participation in the elections, amid serious security threats posed by rampaging members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, will signify the ARMM residents' continuing belief that autonomy holds the promise of making their life better.

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0811/p99s01-duts.html