Are we forgetting the 57 victims?

The horror that greeted the discovery of 57 dead bodies in pits in the killing fields of Ampatuan in Maguindanao was just too incredible, harsh and cruel, for us, for all, around the world. We are shocked when we are shown pictures of starved, naked, dead bodies taken during the holocaust, of the genocide committed by German soldiers on the Jewish population in Germany during the Second World War. And so are we devastated by the news, and the pictures shown in print and on television, of the mutilated and violated bodies of men and women right at our doorstep, on Nov. 23, 2009. The killings looked to be the handiwork of monsters, not humans — executed with seeming gusto, without compunction, with apparent sadism.

Immediately, concerned and horrified civilians and military men and government officials descended upon the site of the killings, and in succession things happened — the capture and arrest and transport to Manila of Datu Unsay Mayor, Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr., believed to be the mastermind of the massacre; the expulsion of Ampatuans from the Lakas political party, and the removal of policemen perceived to be involved in the massacre. Then there were the arrests of other Ampatuans — including the father of Mayor Andal, Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., and Mayor Andal’s brother, ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.

What followed was the imposition by President Arroyo of martial law in the province. This empowered law enforcers to look for weapons in the clan’s areas, and indeed, they unearthed an arms cache, and seized 39 high powered firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, 340,000 bullets for M-16 assault rifles. Policemen believed to owe their allegiance to the clan were removed or transferred.  

Public prosecutors and keepers of justice and peace flew to the scene to see who would be arrested and/or charged with murder or rebellion.

Martial law was met with diametrically opposed reactions.

One was one of welcome and relief — from people who had expressed relief with the end of the Ampatuans’ rule, and from those of us looking in from the outside, about making it easy for authorities to search every nook and corner of the province for possibly more arms caches and explosives, and drugs, of which the rulers are reported to be engaged in, for how else would they explain their wealth, their fleet of motor vehicles, their multi-million-peso mansions rising from a sea of impoverished constituents around them?

A source of relief for martial law supporters is the voting down by the Supreme Court petitions to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and prohibition on the continued implementation of edict 1959.

The opposing sector greeted Presidential Proclamation No.1959 with more than fangs and warnings of the Maguindanao model presaging the imposition of martial law over the whole country.

The arguments raised many thorny questions and accusations, among them the abuse of power by the President, and her coddling of the Ampatuans who had supposedly helped her win votes in their part of Mindanao. As I have stated in the past, anything bad is attributed by critics to President Arroyo, including the crime and poverty rates in the Maguindanao.

Yesterday, Congress was scheduled to vote on the constitutionality of martial law in the province, which has gained full-blown notoriety in the world map.

The commotion over the edict seems to have drowned out the horrifying deaths of 57 civilians, including 31 journalists — who had innocently gone to the capital to file a certificate of candidacy for a political challenger to the older incumbent Ampatuan governor. My question, asked by many others is, do we easily forget the deaths of 57 people in our self-righteous attempt to protect the human rights of the killers?

We will have to wait for the decision of Congress on whether to approve or vote down Proclamation 1959.

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 I was supposed to sit down for a chat with Sen. Loren Legarda, the only female vying for the vice-presidential seat (and the other half of the Villar-Legarda tandem) in the 2010 elections, but our meeting would have to wait till the skies have cleared.

Having been a vocal broadcaster resisting martial law during the Marcos dictatorship, Loren has apprehensions about the trampling of individuals’ rights, particularly by the military, and in this instance, in Maguindanao. While she condemned the massacre and called for an end to warlordism (the term used for the metamorphosis of the Ampatuan clan to warlords), she said the declaration ”should not be used as a basis to trample human rights and advance the President’s political ambition.”

She agreed that before the declaration, the Armed Forces had secured Maguindanao and seized the Ampatuans’ arms cache. But, she said, “Martial law is the ultimate action. There must be a better way to check lawlessness in the area.” She added that Congress “must assert its role in defining and limiting the scope of the martial law declaration.”

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How the military works should not be strange to Loren, a multi-awarded broadcast journalist who kept people in power on their toes, a top graduate of the National Defense College and the University of the Philippines. She garnered the most number of votes in the 1998 and 2007 elections, and has authored landmark laws such as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act and the Magna Carta for Women, the Clean Air Act, and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. In recognition of her lifelong environmental advocacy, she has been named United Nations Asia-Pacific Champion for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction.

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At this juncture, let me cite what Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo of Cotabato has said with regard to the President’s placing Maguindanao under martial law.

“The complexity and abnormality of the situation (in Maguindanao) and the need for swift justice for 57 brutally massacred innocent civilians would dictate an extraordinary measure,” the prelate said. He has been asked, he said, by Christians and Muslims alike about the Church’s position on the martial law issue. He said he “reflected on the question in the light of the situation in Maguindanao, as well as the social teachings of the Church.”

The bishop painted a grim picture of the peace and order conditions in Maguindanao, citing incidents of liquidations and kidnappings by armed men. “This cycle of violence has affected the peace process in that area and its surrounding municipalities. Guns seem to  be everywhere. The functioning of the courts of justice and of election bodies have been highly suspect for a long time partly due to the political allegiances of court officers. Competence, transparency and accountability in political governance in most places have to be significantly improved in Maguindanao; family and relationship is most important.”

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