Word: mangudadatu
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Members of a convoy on their way to file candidacy papers for a local politician were attacked by up to 100 gunmen in what officials are calling a political massacre "unequaled in recent history." A dozen journalists were slain, along with the wife of gubernatorial hopeful Ismael Mangudadatu. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a local state of emergency and vowed to pursue the perpetrators, who were alleged to be connected to the region's current governor, an Arroyo ally...
...Monday, on a highway cutting through a banana grove, a large force of gunmen - reports say around 100 - intercepted the convoy of family members and supporters of Buluan vice-mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, also from a prominent local Muslim clan. They were on their way to the provincial capital to file his candidacy papers for Maguindanao's governorship in next year's general elections. It's a position that Ampatuan's father had occupied unopposed since 2001 and which Ampatuan planned to contest to keep the seat in the family. The Mangudadatu group was herded to what appears to have been...
...interviews with local media, Mangudadatu told of death threats over his challenge for the governorship, and has publicly accused Ampatuan. He did not join the convoy, but filled it with female relatives, including his wife and two sisters, and supporters, as well as a large group of journalists to cover his candidacy. "Among the conventions that govern clan and political-related violence in the region is that women, children and the elderly are off-limits as targets," wrote Manuel Quezon III, a prominent political commentator, on his website. Besides those connected to the Mangudadatus, 27 local journalists were among...
...families. A day after the killings, Arroyo put two southern provinces and a city under a state of emergency and deployed more troops to the area. All permits to carry firearms there have been canceled. "Retaliatory violence can be expected although a small chink of hope remains that Mangudadatu may rise above rido and avert further bloodshed," says Ian Bryson, a regional analyst at Singapore-based Control Risks...
...Both families have blood ties and were allies until the Mangudadatu's last year announced their challenge to governorship. The Ampatuans are not a family to be crossed: the clan is known to run its own private army; some estimates put its strength at between 200 and 500 men. To be sure, warlordism is not unique to Mindanao; it afflicts other parts of the archipelago and the northern province of Abra is practically a byword for political vendettas. But it is highly prevalent in Mindanao's conflict-affected areas where there is a large array of armed groups that include...
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