By Raïssa Robles
As my contribution to this day of remembering, I’d like to share with you all what I wrote two days after the Ampatuan massacre. I thought I had lost this piece forever when my original site went down due to hacking. Fortunately I found it again today. The post-massacre photos in this piece were taken and generously shared by Rolivel Elusfa. A word of caution. They are extremely graphic.
It’s close to midnight of Day 3 since at least 57 unarmed women and men were murdered in broad daylight and still not one of around 100 suspects have been nabbed and presented to the outraged public. This is despite your declaration of a state of emergency in that area under Proclamation 1946. (By the way, your office has not released the text of this Proclamation. Wonder why.
How do you sleep at night, Mrs President, knowing you could have prevented this?
You must know who the Butchers of Maguindanao are and how this might affect the outcome of the 2010 presidential elections next year.
If the Ampatuans are guilty, you know that they know a lot of your dirty secrets. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where Zaldy Ampatuan is the governor, has 1.5 million registered voters. You won by one million votes in 2004.
It fills me with horror that if even one of them perpetrated the crime, you were meeting with ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan on November 23 – the very day the massacre was taking place.
Did Governor Zaldy know something bad was scheduled to happen? It’s like a scene straight out of The Godfather mafia movie.
Governor Zaldy was there trying to get you to endorse Lakas Party Congressman Munir Arbison to run as governor of Sulu, your political strategist Gabriel Claudio said afterward. Sulu’s incumbent governor is Sakur Tan, who is in your Kampi Party. That is another dangerous political brew in the making. It would be just like Maguindanao where your two party mates – the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus – are fighting it out not only for the governorship but for various local posts.
The massacre would not have happened if your Lakas-Kampi Party had resolved the Maguindanao gubernatorial issue internally.
I was thinking, if you’re really after swift impartial justice, why don’t you do it Manila style? Treat the suspects the way the police treated broadcaster Ted Failon after he found his wife shot in the head on April 15 this year.
Only hours after the incident, the police arrested Failon even without a single witness pointing an accusing finger at him. Even without a criminal complaint being filed against him. The police subjected him at once to a paraffin test because they said it was imperative that they find out whether he had fired a gun.
Four policemen were relieved afterward but only for the “forceful arrest” of his two relatives, not for arresting Failon.
When the test on his hands and clothes turned out negative for powder burns, the police insisted he was still their prime suspect because paraffin tests are not that reliable after all.
In the present case of mass murder, the prime suspect was at once tagged by Esmail Mangudadatu, husband of one of the victims and a relative of several others. The police and military knew beforehand there was a security threat against the husband because he had asked for armed government security to escort his wife. The authorities turned him down.
During that fateful day, the victim had phoned her husband Esmael Mangudadatu just before dying, to tell him that about a hundred men had blocked her group. She even named the ringleader of the armed blockade – Andal Ampatuan, Jnr. This turned out to be one of her last words before dying.
Hours later, she turned up dead.
It was this phone call that alarmed her husband into alerting authorities to look for her.
What did you do when your own party mate Esmail Mangudadatu asked for help?
Instead of the prime suspect – fingered by no less than one of the victims shortly before dying – being picked up by police for questioning and subjected to the usual paraffin test, you sent top presidential aide Jesus Dureza to talk to the suspect’s father and to ask for the family’s cooperation in the investigation.
Is that standard operating procedure when a murder happens? You ASK the family of the main suspect – could you pretty please cooperate with the investigation?
Many of the dead were reporters. Have you sent anyone to offer your condolences to their families? Or are they outside your concern?
The only demand to date from the presidential palace is for the murderers to please turn themselves in. It has sent no posse to pick them up the way Ted Failon and his relatives were immediately picked up for questioning.
The massacre happened last Monday. No one in the Ampatuan family has publicly said a word and it’s now Wednesday midnight.
No one has been arrested.
Wow.
From now on, will you be treating all suspects that way? Or just these suspects.
You know, even if I did write about this for my newspaper (South China Morning Post, HK) I never really grasped the full-scale of the horror until I saw the photos of the victims sprawled on the grass like discarded trash. Many of them were killed because like me, they were just reporters.
The husband, Mangudadatu, recounted on RMN-DZXL radio that his dead wife was tortured while still alive:
Ang masakit po – nakita ko kagabi noong inautopsy ang aking asawa, nilaslas po ari, binaril ari, binaril sa bunganga. Yung kanyang kanang mata pinalabas. Yan po ay sobrang hindi po makatao. Lahat ng pinsalang doon, pinagbabaril ang ari para sa ganon hindi po magkaroon ng positibong resulta pagka ito’y nagkaroon ng masusing pagsusuri sa kanilang mga ari. Yun ang paniwala ng mga nanggahasa.
Here is the rough translation:
The painful thing is, I saw my wife last night when she was being autopsied. Her genitals had been slashed, and shot. She was shot through the mouth. Her right eye was gouged out. That is so inhuman. All that mutilation, her private parts were shot at so that there would be no positive results upon examination. That was what her rapist thought.
And the Mangudadatus were also your party mates.
In some photographs, some of the bodies have the flies of their pants open. And some are naked. Those are the women. Some also look pregnant. Mangudadatu confirmed his slain sister and two aunts were pregnant.
In a normal world the President of the Republic of the Philippines would be foaming at the mouth and spluttering in rage at this blatant butchery.
It took you – let me see – two days to express personal outrage.
Today you called for a day of mourning.
NO, Mrs. President, it should be DAYS OF OUTRAGE.
Your presidential standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro earlier issued statements making it appear he has nothing to do with the deadly quarrel between the two Maguindanao clans. But in truth he has everything to do with it because the week before the massacre took place you made him chairman of Lakas-Kampi Party.
Or is he just a puppet with you pulling the strings?
At this very moment while I’m writing this entry I hear on the evening newscast that Teodoro and his running mate Edu Manzano visited today the grieving spouse, Mangudadatu.
Teodoro urged the Lakas executive committee to expel ARMM Governor Zaldy and his father, three-term Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, “for their failure to supervise as heads of the Ampatuan clan the principles of our party for peaceful, honest electoral processes and peaceful honest political dialogue”
Mmmm. Is that their only crime?
I’m also hearing about fresh threats being issued against the Mindanao-based media covering the crime scene, because some people are hurting over the “sensationalized” reporting. Believe me, we don’t even have to try.
The facts are horrific enough.
Mrs President, is that why the reporters were killed? Because their words hurt?
NOTE: On November 27, 2009, I posted this piece below:
A source who personally knows members of the Ampatuan family has just told me this piece of disturbing news:
First, assuming the son Andal Ampatuan Jr. carried out the crime, the son is NOT the mastermind. The son reportedly carried it out on someone else’ orders. The key to finding the mastermind is the back hoe or excavator which had been digging up the killing fields even before Monday’s carnage.
The family decided that for the sake of the family’s political survival, the son would have to surrender to authorities and defend himself before a court of law. The family fully regrets what had happened.
Second, before the mass murder took place Lakas-Kampi Party presidential standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro had tried to negotiate a political settlement between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus. In that meeting, the Ampatuan patriarch Andal Sr. reportedly expressed outrage that his allies the Mangudadatus had refused to concede the governorship to his namesake, otherwise known as “Datu Unsay”.
From what my source told me, I can only conclude that Teodoro knew even then how enraged the old man Ampatuan was.
Teodoro is a decent person. I wish he would disclose what had happened in his consensus-building meeting with the two families, which fell apart and led to Monday’s carnage.
______________________________
Related Stories
Part 2: Why did GMA treat Ampatuans as rebels, not suspected mass killers? [Or how foreign media grilled top Arroyo officials on the Ampatuan massacre – I included here the actual videos of the grillings from journalists of various wire agencies Reuters, AFP, AP etc.]
Vicki says
God is in control. Everything that’s happening now is as it should be. As for me, I’m leaving room for God’s wrath — Vengeance is His!!!! Let’s pray that the judge will have the courage to uphold the law, to be fair and to exact the punishment that should be exacted. Let’s pray for all the prosecutors, that they will do a good job no matter what. As for the defense lawyer, I leave him to God’s mercies. Lastly, GMA is progressively paying for her misdeeds as president. I leave her and her family also to God’s mercies.
benigni .andres.de.los.villalobos says
what more do we need to prove? all the evidences presented before the court points to the Ampatuan family…..hindi pa ba sapat ang mga ebidensya natin laban sa kanila? kawawa naman ang mga naulilang mga pamilya hanggang kailan sila maghihintay ng katarungan…i believe in the law of Karma…..kung wala dito sa lupa ang hustisya, and panginoon na ang bahala sa kanila……….the Ampatuans are directly involved in these massacre…that’s for sure…Gloria’s greatest mistake in life is to treat the Ampatuans with tender loving care….she should be made responsible for what she had created….A MONSTER>>>>>>>
raissa says
The Ampatuans are entitled to due process.
But their lawyers are sure using all the technicalities that gaps in the laws provide.
Binibining Gala says
Kakaawa naman mga tao sa Pinas. Mahirap na buhay lalo pang naghihirap dahil sa mga politicians natin. Akala ko tayong mga Pilipino ay God-fearing people, may konsensiya pero dahil sa pangyayaring ito I feel so sad. Let us pray for them.
raissa says
Amen.
Lou Shmuck says
This article is stupid. A lot of presumptions here are simplistic and borders on the hysterical and emotional.
It assumes that the president has all encompassing powers to resolve a political party’s squabble. It assumes that the president knows or should have known EVERYTHING that was about to happen! It assumes that the president is as uncaring individual. I don’t know how all this presumptions come from but it does not help anyone but put ALL the blame on one personality.
The Massacre of course was horrific and it cries out for Justice. But hysterically blaming one personality, mainly the former President is outright stupidity.
The problems in Mindanao and the reasons for the massacre are a result of many factors. The culture of patronage there is deeply entrenched. Clan wars are common place. From Marcos to Arroyo to the current president, navigating and deftly maneuvering the political landscape there requires stoking of egos and adherence to laws and norms that are, not only backward but outright ancient. There are other reasons but it would be too long to discuss.
The point I am making is, this article, while dramatic and focuses blame on a hated personality (GMA), is not a real insight into the real cause of the massacre. You can shout to the high heavens that GMA caused this and turn her into an into an evil uncaring troll in your eyes but the root cause of the problem and the events leading up to this incident goes way beyond a point in time and one personality. To solve the problem, there must be deep understanding of our culture and a reflection in ourselves and what we, as a people, need to do to prevent a similar thing from happening. Blaming one personality is convenient but does not help anybody.
raissa says
You are the stupid one.
Research how close the Ampatuans were to GMA.
I didn’t need to research. I was covering the damned thing.
Your name speaks for itself. You are a Schmuck.
And yes. I was being emotional. I wrote the piece three days after the massacre. It brought home the fact that reporters were treated as collateral damage. And garbage.
But I was also being rational. I was looking at how GMA reacted. THAT, my dear, was based on facts.
Kindly impress us with your brilliance. All you’re showing so far is a small mind.
Rochie says
there are flaws in our institutions and in our culture, as well as in the values which our people hold dear. but this carnage is surely a result of a leader’s insatiable hunger for power and wealth, like that of the ampatuans and the arroyos.
the article may have been written by an emotional writer, given the disturbing situation at the time it was written, but it speaks of the truth which many of us with open eyes can see. how else can we explain the boldness by which ampatuan’s men butchered those men and women in broad daylight? isn’t it common sense to think that they thought of themselves as untouchables because of their unholy alliance with the glorious one?
marcos and gloria are one and the same when it comes to holding on to power they did not deserve nor put to good use, but at least marcos had martial law on his hand. come to think of it, wasn’t gloria even worse because she did things her way with some valuable help from her crafty and scheming husband?
when the one at the top is like GMA, there is every reason to blame her for all the distress and discord this country is facing.
Johnny Lin says
Can I call you Jack Ass instead of Lou Schmuck? Similar but Jack sounds better.
Albeit your historical facts on clan wars and patronage in the region were accurate, however it was the first time this unusual horrible massacre, with media people as collaterals, happened in the area or anywhere. Moral and physical neglect of the authorities precipitated the atrocity. The essence of the article was prevention. It should not have happened if GMA did not spare the rod; cries for help by Mangundadatu were ignored by her minions. Guns wantonly provided to the Ampatuans, money was free flowing to their coffers, spoiling the bandit. Before the massacre, common knowledge were reports of many missing enemies and critics of Ampatuans. GMA and her military shut their eyes and ears accommodating the warlord for their political interest. Iron fist should have been applied early and guaranteed the incident would not have occurred. GMA was too late in wielding the stick but positively proved it could be done at will. Erap did it, PNoy is doing it now. Your assumption was not as complex as perceived. The emotion of the writer was expected considering the circumstances.
nona says
there is none so blind as cannot see or as naive as a cult follower.
how inane to even make such comments.
go back to your schoolwork
Baltazar says
Lou Shmuck , This article was written at the time when the infamous midget thief was still the president – merely two years back. If this article adds to the reputation damage she already incurred presently, then it could be just what other people call “justice from heaven” because after all, God may be gentle and slow to anger, but He surely knows when is the right time to impose it. And when He imposes His judgement, beware, NO HUMAN LAWS OR TECHNOLOGY can prevail against it.
Pagibig says
LET ARROYO AND ALL HER FAMILY BE IN JAIL
Eldeon Sunwar says
Ngayun ko lang napagtanto na bukod sa mga naging partisipasyon ni GMA, kanyang pamilya at mga kakampi sa pag abuso sa kaban ng bayan etong massacre sa Maguindanao na siguro ang pinaka malala sa lahat ng kanyang krimen. Hindi man siya ang gumawa ng pagpatay pero siya ang nagpalakas ng halimaw.
Sabi nga ni Lacson nakaka awa siya dahil walang na aawa sa kanya.
The days of retribution have come. No one is above the law of nature!
Esther Mindo says
The way Mangandadatu’s wife died should be done too with GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO…in front of the Malacanang where all of us can see…. anyways this might not happen……but…. .if it is real her problem is her neck let her suffer pieces to pieces….and ho pe she crawl like a snake…and just be found slaughtered again the way the wife of Mangandadatu’s wiife died…still not enough but let her face God so God can throw her straight to hell…she is worst than MARCOS….but that is another family we have to watch and not allowed one of the MARCOS to win the presidential bid…I do not understand the mentality of my country man so forgiving or they are being paid by what money can buy…
raissa says
Pls, GMA is not worse than Marcos.
Marcos set the gold standard.
Marcos got away by being sick.
GMA thinks she can get away, too, in the same manner.
Pagibig says
THANK YOU BUT STILL THIS ANOTHER FAMILY TO WATCH IN THE NEAR FUTURE
Lito says
Common denominator is both crooks think (thought for one) that we Filipinos have nothing between our ears. Let us prove them wrong.
Johnny Lin says
Marcos severe illness was naturally deadly while GMA was dying to malinger severe illness
Baltazar says
I just wonder what would have happened if those angry people who broke through the palace gate during the people power 1 time while the Marcos family was still inside..Could it have ended to something similar to Gadaffi’s death? Known to many Pinoys, the then US president Reagan had provided air transport support for the Marcoses to pull out of the palace as their lives were truly in danger. Well, right, Marcos sets the true standard even in terms of many foreign leader-allies he had.
raissa says
Yeah.
Reagan saved the Marcoses.
prescot says
God wil wipe all the tears when jusdgement time come. The criminal will be thrown at the lake of fire. Her money, lawyers, power and connections has no merit in hell. God dont sleep and he allowed good people to be victims but he will reap what she sow. Her due is comingin thousands of years of pain. My prayers to the families of the victim.
josephleyson says
dont worry guys atty fortun will have a heart attack soon.those victims are God’s creation and were grossly mutilated, tortured by the man sicker than hitler.fortuns money will rot one of these days.its just like a money earned by a high class prostitute that disappear easily.vengeance is not ours.fortun will realize very soon that defending a most gruesome killer will have its share of misfortune.he will suffer also i hope.
Boyettl says
The money paid by the Ampatuan Clan to Atty.Sigrid Fortun,et al to defend them came from the people’s pocket because the money was stolen by GMA and she gave it to the Ampatuan Clan.
raissa says
Ah, that still has to be proven.
Johnny Lin says
On another front, SC ordered land distribution of Cojuangco owned Hacienda Luisita by a vote 14-0. This is significant proving Noynoy Cojuangco Aquino appointed justices are not his lapdogs compared to the 8 Arroyo appointed justices.
epoy says
OK, here is it, parang chess lang kasi ang larong politika, SC move against cojuangcos property HACIENDA LUISITA…. Purpose is to let NOYNOY aquino slow down on arroyos.
thats a bargaining chips now for Aquino Vs Arroyo… If noynoy want arroyo behind bars then let the land distributed.
BUT if noynoy aquino want arroyo sets free then NOYNOY have land .
SAan ka lalagay PNOY? May arroyo ka nga at walang lupa.. O may lupa at walang arroyo…
Lagot na naman si JUAN TAMAD, nasakripisyo na naman…. Si juan pa rin ang kawawa kahit anong gawin… hay naku mga chang at chong…
Lets wait and see na lang…
Pagibig says
that is the problem when it comes to politics sratch my back n i will scratch yours..if pinoy let this case go by gone he should be the next one to be slaughtered….amazing like the USA rich country and yet being fooled by their own politicians as well…etc……and it is only now they are starting to see how big is corruption in the USA…finally it is an eye opening but too late the USA is falling apart down the drain…too bad we have no choice lucky for those who has money and can live and go back to my country..while I can’t..be burried here but my soul is drifting back home…
raissa says
Our political system of patronage politics was patterned after that of the US.
Pagibig says
NO WONDER WHY…..MY COUNTRYMAN IMMITATE THE DOINGS OF THE AMERICANS
jorge bernas says
@ JOHNNY LIN,
Tama ka johnny, Pnoy appointed justices are not his lapdog compared to Pandak appointed justices who continue to be her TUTA or ASO. laki siguro bayad sa mga TUTAng justices na ito ni Pandak…
Boyettl says
The more they( Fortun,et al) delay the trial by technicalities,the longer the Ampatuans stays in prison.That’s what we want because there is no Death penalty in the Philippines.
Johnny Lin says
Ampatuan Sr, alleged massacre mastermind is the only witness/alibi cited by GMA in her SC petition on her electoral sabotage nullification. Evil protected by the devil. Justices only option, forced by GMA to decide who is the lesser evil, Ampatuan or Unas/Bedol? This is how low the SC has gone into, to the devil, instead of, to the dogs. WOW!
jamie says
I still can’t comprehend for the life of me, how evil people could be even during peace. Atrocities like this only happen during war. What’s even more repugnant is no one has been punished after two years even with overwhelming evidences against the accused. Possibly, sell out from the judge? Pnoy and all Pinoys must keep up the pressure for swift justice. Keep the vigil outside the court and never give up.
Pam says
These people murdered and their family must meet justice ASAP! I have seen videos and photos of the massacre and it’s making me sick! I pray for all the lost souls and their family. Questions are: Who could have done these? and Why? Only Sick and evil people and they must be punish. Because of politics and greed that is why all these things happened. Gloria has to face all these. Also, i watched Elena Bautista-Horn interviewed by Karen Davila..all i could say is she is really..really good for protecting Gloria after all these things and the whole time. She said she’s loyal to Gloria and it’s her choice to stay and she has no reason for her to leave, well. for that I give her credit but then again who knows if she’s really there bcoz of the things she’s said or maybe she owes her alot?! What really annoys me is that when she says something about how Gloria is so good and needs help and those blah.blah.blah…what about those people who died on the massacre? FPJ died bcoz of her! I mean, i am not a pro FPJ but he fought cleanly to win and just cheated on? O nga pala, 5 kaso daw ang dapat i file against Gloria pero ni isa wla pa!!! bakit nga ba? Kainis! Dapat si DeLima nalng ang dapat mag decide para kay Gloria kasi parang sya lng ang may alam kung ano dapat ang gawin…at parang si DeLima lng ang may alam kung anong gusto ng mga tao!!! Dyos nman itong goberno natin kaya yong mga may sala nka free lalo na may pera ka. Yong mga kaso agaisnt The Arroyos must be filed now. pati na do’n sa mga cohorts ni Arroyo. Kung sino mang mga tao ni Arroyo dyan sa SC tanggalin dapat kasi Pnoy na ngayon…Dyos ko. Unfair treatment pa ang sabi ng mga tao ni Arroyo sa sitwasyon nga ni Gloria..anong unfair? nka 50,000/aday nga unfair?! Eh, unfair para kay Erap yan!!! unfair para sa lahat ng tao. Ay! Kainis!!!!