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NEW YORK, United States?Islam obliges its faithful to always respect women and children, particularly in times of conflict. Or so believed the Mangudadatus, one of whose scions, Ismael, is challenging the entrenched Ampatuan clan for the governorship of Maguindanao Province in western Mindanao.
Because of the resulting tensions, and threats against Ismael, the Mangudadatus believed that by sending a largely female group to file the candidacy papers at Sharif Aguak, the province?s capital, no violence would result. It was a fatal miscalculation. Whatever faith the killers had ended where the barrels of their guns began.
They had no god but their chief, no calling but the illusion of power and whatever perks there may be in a thug?s life. I have met a few thugs, not deliberately, mind you (well, perhaps one or two), and some of them in pretty high reaches of society, but whatever perks these low-level thugs may have had could not have added up to much (mostly, I suspect, acting and looking tough and being paid for it), and yet, in the addled logic of a killer, these petty prerogatives justified the cold-blooded executions.
To compound the tragedy, a number of the victims just happened to be passing by at the time the Mangudadatu party was about to be rubbed out. In this regard, the killers were utterly conventional and adhered strictly to the universal rule of gangland: no witnesses, even if some were children.
The victims were herded to a grassy hilltop where they were shot in cold blood, not far from where their cars had been pulled over. Two vehicles that happened along were also stopped and their occupants killed as well. The bodies were buried in a shallow grave, as were three of the vehicles. A backhoe, property of the provincial government, may have been used to excavate the shallow grave and dump earth on the bodies, thus deepening suspicions that the provincial authorities were involved.
At first, the body count was 45; then it went up to 57. Now it has gone beyond 60. More bodies may yet be found. The slaughtered include an estimated 30 journalists; Mangudadatu clan members, most if not all women, of whom there were 22, including Ismael?s wife, Genalyn; lawyers; and those passersby. According to the New York Times report of November 28, written by Carlos Conde, the women?s bodies had been separated from those of the men and bore evidence of mutilation, with Genalyn shot, according to the grieving husband, ?in her private parts.? Whether the women were raped or not is still being determined. Who were these women? Their occupations ranged from housewives and lawyers to journalists and community activists, two of whom worked with Gawad Kalinga. None of them were gun-toting insurgents.
The scope of the killings seemed to bother a number of the gunmen, who surrendered and were said to be willing to testify. Wrote Conde, ?Though the killings violated a traditional custom against harming women, the men seemed troubled more by the deaths of the journalists and the bystanders.? He quoted the justice secretary Agnes Devanadera: ?They are bothered by their conscience because they thought that only the Mangudadatus would be shot.? One wonders if it were conscience or the possibility of a deal being struck?or even the preservation of their families whenever revenge will be exacted?that motivated these killers.
The current governor is Andal Ampatuan, whose path to power began in the tumultuous days right after the 1986 ouster of the Marcoses, when he was appointed as OIC of a town. He made it to the governorship and is said to have anointed his son, Andal Ampatuan Jr.?mayor of Datu Unsak?to succeed him. One witness is reported to have seen him at the crime scene. Alleged to be the mastermind behind these barbaric killings, the son turned himself in a couple of days after the bodies were discovered. (Observers noted he was not handcuffed and seemed to be treated almost deferentially.) Not surprisingly, he has professed his innocence. Neither the governor nor another son, head of the powerful Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), has issued any public statements.
The president has placed Maguindanao under a state of emergency. Does anyone believe this is going to alter the patterns of power and abuse there, or anywhere else for that matter? For one thing, whom does a state of emergency most affect? Ordinary citizens, already burdened not just with the strain of surviving economically but of surviving with life and limb intact. What complicates matters and makes emergency rule nothing but a charade is that the commanders of military units assigned to a province are usually beholden to the governors. And so, too, are the militias like the Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographic Units), armed and theoretically under supervision by the military. Throw in a local Comelec office that more often than not kowtows to the political establishment, and you have a state run as a personal fiefdom. In that sense, are such provinces any different from those in Afghanistan, or Pakistan? Or Chechnya, for that matter? It is true that in this particular case the two military commanders have been relieved of their command, but that is no guarantee their successors will stay above the fray of local politics.
The barbarous killings are yet another proof, if any more were needed, that civilian militias must be disbanded. The Cafgu must go, their guns taken away. They are no solution to the insurgencies that still trouble the nation. In fact, they are very much a part of the problem, their abuses often leading to increased recruitment for the rebels, whether Muslim or not. Essentially guns for hire, they will do the bidding of whoever is in power.
In Maguindanao, that power is the Ampatuan clan, which has thrived precisely because of Malacañang?s patronage. In turn, GMA and her party are assured of the clan?s backing in the region. A clear and beneficial quid pro quo. Governor Ampatuan during the 2004 presidential elections promised in public that he would deliver the province?s votes to her. He was a man of his word: not only did the province go for Gloria, but two of the towns his family controlled had zero votes for Arroyo?s opponent, Fernando Poe Jr. It was a clever variation on the old trick of having the dead voting. This time, it must have been made clear to the living that if they voted for the movie star, they might as well be dead. Hence, it was on Ampatuan turf that allegations of voter fraud on Arroyo?s part first surfaced. Remember dagdag-bawas and the infamous Hello Garci phone calls? It was then that the nation should have said Goodbye, Gloria.
One ostensible reason for the central government?s patronage of the Ampatuans is that they and their private army act as a counterweight to the insurgencies in the region. But with friends like these, who needs enemies? Complicating matters further is the very real possibility of the rido, or blood feud, which has a long history in the area, as it does in certain other parts of the country. I?d be very surprised if rido were kept out of the equation in this case.
The cycles of violence the country is plagued with is numbing, dehumanizing, and demoralizing. There is a mighty strong temptation to give up any hope that we can move forward as a people and as a nation. My first impulse on learning about the massacre was to say, what?s the use? Why bother with the charade of democracy? What have all the fine speeches, all the policy papers, all the candles lit, and all the prayers accomplished? Let?s be done with it. Let dog eat dog: from now on, it?s every man and woman for him- and herself.
And yet, to yield to the demons of our despair solves nothing. Against all odds, we need to press onward, curse, and mourn, yes, but also organize, think passionately, and act calmly, and be agents of positive change, whether on a bigger stage or in our own lives. It may strike some as ironic but these words of Samuel Beckett give me hope: ?No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.?
