IT HAS been called the darkest day in the history of journalism, as at least 12 reporters were among the 46 people slaughtered in election-related killings in Maguindanao province on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
The massacre is the latest outrage to strike the troubled region, where Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott was kidnapped weeks ago but released unharmed.
Since 1978, fighting between government troops and the liberation front on Mindanao has claimed 120,000 lives and made up to two million people homeless, while feuds between warlords add to the misery of local people.
Elections are especially violent, because Muslim rebels use them to push their cause in the largely Catholic country.
Even in a country almost immune to violence, the scale and brutality of Monday’s massacre has shocked the Philippines.
In the incident, a group of 100 militiamen, reportedly linked to Andal Amputuan, a local politician who has ruled Maguindanao for a decade and is known to support president Gloria Arroyo, stopped a group of supporters of his bitter rival, Ismael Mangudadatu.
Mr Mangudadatu, vice-mayor of Buluan township, plans to run for provincial governor.
A group of his family and supporters, with some journalists, were travelling in convoy to file a nomination to contest the governor’s post in next May’s elections when they were stopped.
The gunmen apparently included two policemen. The Amputuan family reportedly runs a private army of 100 armed militiamen.
The victims were shot or hacked to death on a hillside off the highway. Some were beheaded. Mr Mangudadatu said the women were raped before being killed.
“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” the Reporters Without Borders group said in a statement.
“This time, the frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodbath. We call for a strong reaction from the local and national authorities.”
Lt Col Rolando Nerona, commander of the Philippine army’s 46th infantry battalion, said: “Our last accounting showed there are 46 [dead] already.”
The latest bodies recovered included 24 found in shallow graves, while the 25th, a woman, was hidden under some of the 21 bodies found initially. The dead included Mr Mangudadatu’s wife, his two sisters and other relatives.
Mr Mangudadatu said there was no doubt his political rival was involved. “It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole [for the bodies].”
Maguindanao is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, created in a peace pact between Manila and rebels. Possession of firearms is common, and the area is plagued by vendetta-style killings by rival clans.
Ms Arroyo has placed two southern provinces under a state of emergency.
