Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Maguindanao Massacre: A Look Back

A Term Paper by Mark Anthony Glindro


Mass grave. Many victims of the Maguindanao massacre were buried here in order to hide the crime.


  Everyday, you can hear from radios, televisions, and magazines the different crimes or events that happen in our community . Like political issue that leads to a crime happened Maguindanao. The Philippines is a country of democracy, people has a freedom to speak out and wisdom. But in terms of political issues, our country has full of evil injustice.

          Why do we have an election? Conducting election is to choose better and capable person who will manage in a certain place to start a progressive and productive community. In the Philippines the election aim is not to progress but a personal interest and to gain more wealth and power .We can say that not all politicians do that but almost. Does other country says that election in our country is dirty because in every election there so many allegations that happening in both clan and parties. Like Maguindanao massacre, Ampatuan family wants to stay longer in service as the highest personnel and a respectful person. Even if they will, Province of Maguindanao,  do it.

    My study focuses about the crime in Maguindanao last November 2009. I want to know their motives in killing many people and how our government gives justice to the victims of massacre. Justice in terms of writing opinions to expressed my personal views and feelings about the crime. Lets us pray for our brothers and sisters to give them justice. Everyone in this world has a right to choose what they want not to die in a worse way like what we call massacre.      

History:


About 9 a.m. of Nov. 23, lawyers, and relatives of Buluan vice Mayor Ishmael “Toto” Mangudadatu started their trip to the Commission on Elections office in Shariff Aguak, capital town of Maguindanao. Mangudadatu tasked his wife, Genalyn, to file his certificate of candidacy for governor after receiving a stern warning from the Ampatuans, the political kingpin of Manguindanao, that he would be chopped into pieces once he filed his COC. Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. the clan patriarch has been at the helm of the Capitol for nine years and now wants his son and namesake to succeed him. He did not want any opponent for his son just as he had ran unopposed during the last three elections.

Mangudadatu sent in a group of women to file his COC, accompanied by a group of journalists. He thought that no one would be monstrous enough to harm a group of defenseless women and journalists. He underestimated his enemy: he didn’t realize that his opponent didn’t have a heart.

About 100 armed men stopped the convoy of six vehicles in sitio Masalay, Ampatuan town, and brought them to barangay Salman, a distance of about 2.5 km. At the site, three mass graves dug by a province –owned by backhoe, had been waiting for them.

The killers then started executing their hostages, using mostly rapid-fire automatic guns, including the belt-fed Shrike mini-M16. They didn’t mind if they were unarmed and three of them were pregnant. They were accounts that some of the bodies were mutilated, their genitals slashed. Some of the bodies could not be recognized since their faces were riddled with bullets.

Approaching Army soldiers made the killers leave in haste: they were not able to bury the victims and left 22 bodies. A total of 57 bodies and three vehicles were dug from three mass graves: 30 of those were journalists. It took the government three days to gather some courage and arrest Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan even if witnesses had said he was with the armed men who stopped the convoy and took part of the killings. Had Mayor Ampatuan been an ordinary Juan dela Cruz, he would have been picked up immediately by the police hours after the killing “for questioning.” But Ampatuan is not an ordinary person. He belongs to the powerful clan that delivered the votes for the administration in the past two elections. His family is considered as untouchable who ran their own kingdom in Maguindanao. Now that the wheels of justice have started to turn, albeit so slowly, let us be vigilant. Let us a keep a close watch over the progress of the case and ensure that this will not be gathering dust in some courtroom due to legal maneuverings. Let us always remember the Ampatuan massacre: how the helpless victims are killed because a warlord feels his political stronghold has been threatened and how the government turns a blind eye to the political and military power of dynasties just because they can be useful during elections. Let what happened are the rallying point to finally put an end to political warlords and allow true democracy to occur and the voices of the people be heard.
We shouldn’t allow the Ampatuan massacre victims to die in vain.


Raped, shot, violated victims of the Maguindanao massacre... not even the journalists were spared.




A. Ampatuan family are innocent


According to the Ampatuan The allegations to them is not true .They were not make any bad doings in order to tear their name in the public .No evidence was found that the crime done by Ampatuan parties and aside from that their whole family is on vacation at that time when the crime happened. Until not proven by the law of our government, the Ampatuan was still inocent.


B. Ampatuan offered to the family of massacre victim


Ampatuan offered the money worth 3 million pesos to withdraw the case,to silen the witness of the crime. Ampatuan warn those who want to opposed their order, the life will be in danger and amount of money will be used to kill, to those who will disagree in their order.


(According to Maria Priscilla Reblando-Zainal, daughter of slain Manila Bulletin reporter Alejandro “Bong” Reblando, claimed her mother, Myrna Reblando, is currently in danger of getting killed allegedly on orders of the Ampatuan clan, some members of who were implicated in the November. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. Mrs. Reblando is the vice chairman of the Justice Now Movement, the association of the families of media victims in the infamous massacre and one of the most vocal in the group in calling for the conviction of former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and several other family members who were implicated in the killing.Zainal said an uncle from her father’s side, a policeman, was assigned to a place in Manila where the Ampatuans have supporters and purportedly learned that there is a P3-million bribe offer for her mother to withdraw the case. If she will not agree, the money will be used as bounty for the head of my mom, Zainal said in an electronic mail.).


C. Datu Mommad Sangki stand as a witness for Maguindanao massacre


Datu Mohammad Sangki stands as a witness for Maguindanao massacre. He is the sangguniang bayan member of Abdullah Sangki Town in Maguindanao.Sangki limit his words when deputy secretary Anthony Fadullon asked about what his commitment to the Ampatuan. He said “I could not tell anymore about the case of Ampatuan to Toto Because Toto ifs the rival of Ampatuan”. Fadullon are target the point of Sangki, but Sangki repeat answering, “if I will tell the truth, the Ampatuan will get mad on me and they think I am an alley af Mangudadatus party. Fadullon will repeat and repeat questions to get the point of witness but he thought you cannot handle me and my family will die. Sangki forced to decline about he allegation to the Ampatuan.




*** PLAGIARISM IS A CRIME. CONTACT THE AUTHORS/BLOG ADMIN FOR REPRODUCTION OF ANY PART OF THIS PAPER. ALL ARTICLES HERE ARE MONITORED BY COPYSCAPE, SO ANY LEVEL OF COPYING CAN BE DETECTED BY PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE.