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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 be 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.
