Filipino Church leaders urge quick action on massacre

Published Date: November 26, 2009

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The government must act quickly and decisively in pursing justice for massacre victims here before an ingrained culture of revenge produces anarchy, a priest has warned.

Fr Eliseo Mercado said the massacre of a convoy of people traveling to file a certificate of candidacy for a candidate in gubnatorial elections next year places the national government, the Commission on Elections and the police “in the eye of the storm”, UCA News.

These bodies need to conduct an impartial investigation, arrest suspects and bring them to trial, stressed the priest, who heads the Cotabato City-based Peace Ministry and Advocacy of his Oblate congregation.

At least 57 bodies had been retrieved in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, after the massacre of Mangudadatu political clan members, supporters, lawyers and journalists traveling with them, Police Superintendent Felicisimo Khu told UCA News on Nov. 25.

Khu expects the death toll could reach 70, “judging from the number of vehicles” lying around in an open field and in two mass graves. At least 100 spent cartridge cases have been recovered from the site.

Justice will not be easy to deliver, peace advocates say. Amina Rasul, lead convener of Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, an NGO working for democracy, notes a “culture of impunity” has ruled in Maguindanao and other places in the southern Philippines where political clans have been allowed to rule.

National political leaders have supported these clans, because they help gain votes and other political benefits, Rasul said in a statement sent to UCA News.

Illegal firearms remain unchecked, she noted, citing a report of 114,189 listed firearms in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Cotabato City, geographically within Maguindanao, is the region’s capital.

The national government has perpetuated this “culture of impunity” since the time of Ferdinand Marcos, noted Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato.

As a result, he told UCA News, it can be demolished only through efforts of NGOs and other grassroots movements, not the government.

Meanwhile, local people feel threatened.

Fr Eduardo Vasquez said in a radio interview on Nov. 25: “We are very concerned about the volatile situation in places in Maguindanao now.”

SOURCE

Church leaders urge quick action, justice after massacre (UCA News)

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