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MANILA, Philippines—The United Nations has been asked by a senator to pressure and "seriously" hold the Philippine government accountable for the deaths of more than 50 people in Maguindanao province.
Senator Loren Legarda made this request in a letter dated November 26, 2009 to Navanethem Pillay, high commissioner for the office of UN human rights based in Geneva, Switzerland.
"As a United Nation's office mandated to promote and protect human rights, may I request you to take this matter up with your constituency of nations in order to put pressure and to seriously hold the government of the Republic of the Philippines accountable for immediate justice to the victims of the massacre as well as to mete out punishment to the perpetrators of this heinous crime," Legarda said in the letter.
"Whatever the motive is behind the massacre, we condemn this brutal and barbaric acts, all the more that it was committed against the most vulnerable sector of society, women, some of whom were reportedly raped before being executed," it further said.
Legarda, a former broadcast journalist, said she would provide financial assistance to members of the media who were among those killed in Maguindanao.
Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said the government can only redeem itself by putting the perpetrators and their masterminds in jail forever.
"Now that the European Union, United Nations, and other leading countries have condemned the Maguindanao massacre, and rightly so, as it is unprecedented in any election-related violence anywhere in the world, the only redeeming value left for our country is to account for all the perpetrators of the crime and lock them all up in jail forever," Lacson said in a statement.
But instead of immediately putting the suspects behind bars, they even served as "smiling hosts" to presidential adviser on Mindanao Jesus Dureza, who was designated by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to handle the issue, said the senator.
"It is equally condemnable that the Ampatuans served as smiling hosts to Mrs. Arroyo's emissary Secretary Jesus Dureza following the massacre, and after initial evidence gathered already pointed to the Ampatuans as the masterminds. Truly, only in the Philippines," Lacson lamented.
He was referring to the powerful Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao, where one of its member, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. was said to be behind the massacre.
