Massacre in the Philippines

It probably was the biggest and most gruesome one-day massacres of journalists in history. Around 10:30 a.m. on November 23 in Maguindanao province on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, a convoy of Filipinos was ambushed by about 100 armed men, some reportedly in police uniforms, and taken to a remote location. At least 57 people in the convoy were killed including 26 journalists.

The dead included 22 women, and some of them were sexually mutilated by gunshots. Most of the victims were shot, some were beheaded and others were run over by vehicles. Some were buried in a mass grave. The victims were part of a convoy of lawyers, journalists and relatives of Esmael Mangudadatu, deputy mayor of Buluan town. They were on the way to file papers for his run for governor of Maguindanao province in May. The convoy was intercepted at a police checkpoint and more than 50 people were taken hostage including the candidate’s wife and sister who were killed. On December l, Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor who planned to run for governor against Mangudadtu, was charged with leading the slaughter and 25 counts of murder in the massacre. Ampatuan had turned himself in while protesting his innocence. His father is governor of the province, a political opponent of Mangudadatu and commander of his own private army. Several men accused of taking part in the slaughter surrendered and offered to testify. Mindanao long has been the scene of Islamic insurgency and clan wars. Philippine authorities blamed the killings on rivalries between local clans that the government had empowered to combat insurgents.

“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in in one day,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement from its Paris headquarters. Rodney Pinder, director of the International News Safety Institute in Brussels, said, “This is a horrific event for all in the world news community, but it goes beyond an attack on journalism and press freedom – it is an appalling assault on democracy itself.”

In a letter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroya, who declared a state of emergency in the southern Philippines, 15 OPC executives and members of the Club’s Freedom of the Press Commiitte wrote, “This is an atrocity which demands the swiftest and fullest action by your government to bring the killers to justice. We are too well aware of the history of violence against journalists in the Philippines. These killings bring to 15 the number of journalists killed in the Philippines in 2009. We have urged you numerous times in the past to bring all of your resources to bear on each individual case. But this mass murder deserves something even greater.” The letter was signed by Allan Dodds Frank, Robert Dowling, David Alpern, George Bookman, Bill Collins, Tala Dowlatshahi, Dorinda Elliott, Jeremy Main, John Martin, Larry Martz, Kevin McDermott, Norman Schorr, Jacqueline Albert Simon, Minky Worden and Sonya Fry.