Statement on the November 23 Maguindanao Massacre
November 26, 2009
RPM-M (Revolutionary Workers Party-Mindanao
The November 23 Maguindanao massacre has been the most brutal and most savage in all the crimes committed by the ruling elite under the Arroyo regime. It could only be done by those who are not human and who have been used to do them with impunity in the past. The Ampatuans are not the only perpetuators in this barbaric and dastardly act but it is the system which has created a monster in this less human clan. The Philippine Army which has been acting as the clan’s private army and the Philippine National Police which has been treated by the clan as its own private security guards are actively part of the continuous crime in the province.
They have committed massacres during the elections in the past or specifically in 2004 elections when democracy and the votes of the people were not counted rightly and buried in the mass graves in the province and where the famous Garcilliano was hidden after the “Hello Garci” controversy was made public. The clan has made Arroyo and Arroyo has made the clan.
Massacres were carried out in the halls of the Philippine Congress when the calls for impeachment of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) were blocked and buried yearly. Massacre of such kind has generational effects.
Everybody has reacted to the November 23 massacre because of the physical indignities and brutalities done to the civilians (mostly women), media practitioners, lawyers but even those who were in the place in a wrong time and passing by on the national highway in a province eking out a living. But less have reacted when the votes and the impeachments were massacred in the halls of the executive and legislative branches of the administration. More massacres were done when the judiciary just looked the other way or delayed the whole process of justice when these were brought in their courts.
Justice were not done in the past massacres and we expect no justice will be done with this latest massacre under the present administration and in the next indecisive administration.
The declaration of the State of Emergency in the province and its neighboring areas is just to ensure a cover-up is the immediate move to manage the crimes and protect the Ampatuans.
The expulsion of the Ampatuans from the ruling Party is to create a picture that the administration has nothing to do with the crime.
The next moves will be people are arrested because they committed the crime and that the Ampatuans will be exonerated because their followers did the crime without their knowledge and they too will be condemning the crime of the overzealous followers.
The people demand for immediate justice for the November 23 Maguindanao Massacre and all the victims of the massacres.
The people demand that all the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police in the areas covered by the Emergency Situation Resign to pave the way for obtaining Justice!
The people demand that President Arroyo resign so that justice will be given to all victims of massacres.
The people demand the disarming of all warlords in all its forms in Mindanao and in the country.
Let us unite to protect and promote justice and democracy!
Let us move forward to build sustainable PEACE in Mindanao and the Philippines!
Justice for the Maguindanao 46! End Trapo Politics Now!
Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Heroes Murdered by Trapo Politics!
PLM
Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the
massacre in Maguindanao. We assert that this is not only a problem confined
to Mindanao, but that it’s a symptom of a festering and rotten political
system. We predict that this violence will be the feature of the coming
elections, as the political elite struggle with increasing desperation and
ferocity for a share of the ever-dwindling national wealth and power.
The Philippine elections are veritable killing fields and the killings have
begun!
We agree that the protection provided to the leaders of the Ampatuan clan by
the GMA regime has granted them political immunity, to act with impunity as
they will. However, the political impunity of the families and clans that
control the political establishment is a permanent feature of politics in
this country. It’s the mark of trapo politics. And lest we forget, it was
the Ampatuan clan that guaranteed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s theft of the
presidency.
The massacre happened because the rival Mangudadatu political clan was
contesting the seat of power of the Ampatuans and were on their way to file
their candidacy. In these clan wars, it’s the poor who are always the
victims as they sacrifice themselves at the altar of trapo politics and for
the interest of rotten trapo politicians. The Maguindanao massacre exposes
the sham of the political system and the electoral process in this country.
PLM says that the people must act and put an end to this rotten system of
trapo politics and the rule of the trapo politicians. Only then can we make
a breach in this rotting carcass of the trapo political establishment and
bring about fundamental changes in the political system. We need system
change! We need to end to elite rule and establish a government of the *
masa.* Only then can we be assured that the violence brought about by trapo
political system will be removed.
Sonny Melencio
Chairperson
Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)
PLM statement on Violence Against Women in the Magindanao
massacre
Stop Violence Against Women! End the Anti-Women System of Trapo Politics!
The Partido Lakas ng Masa will mark the UN International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women with a candlelight vigil for the brave
women who were raped and murdered by men in the Magindanao massacre.
“There has been a rise in the number of incidents of violence against women
in the Philippines this year. Now the rape and murder of women is being used
as a weapon, in the political violence unleashed by this patriachal trapo
political system.
“Trapo politics is fundamentally anti-women, although ironically, the number
one trapo in the land is a woman president. Women in positions of power who
continue to represent and support this country’s political system of trapo
politics and elite rule damage and hinder the cause for gender equality and
women’s rights. We need women who struggle for system change, against elite
rule – the *masang kababaihan* – to represent us and take power”, said Nelia
Yibar, the party’s spokeswoman for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights.
November 26, 2009
THE CARNAGE IN MAGUINDANAO ONCE AGAIN EXPOSES THE BANKRUPTCY OF THE SYSTEM
MLPP
While Mindanao continues to be mired in severe economic crisis, the peace and security of ordinary Mindanaoans are further compromised. The brutality that was committed yesterday stirred the indignation of the whole nation.
Together with the whole Filipino people, we condemn in strongest terms the gruesome massacre of more than 40 defenseless individuals including women and media people at the boundary of Ampatuan and Shariff Aguak towns in Maguindanao. Some of the women were raped. The cadavers were riddled with bullets. Some were simply buried in a common grave dug by a backhoe. The backhoe is owned by the government and has the governor’s name printed on it.
This senseless killing is very hard for many Filipino minds to accept. Yet, it is not hard to grasp why such kind of brutality can happen. The reality of patronage politics and local rule of political dynasties have given rise to warlordism in the island.
Other traditional politicians could transfer only market places to new sites once they assume power. The Ampatuan clan has the notoriety of transferring the capital town and the provincial capitol of Maguindanao province after wrestling the governorship from the Candaos. The town of Shariff Aguak (the bailiwick of the Ampatuans) has become the new capital town and the newly constructed grandiose provincial capitol is erected safely in the same place.
Through the years, the clan would illegally stockpile firearms now capable of arming a whole division (an armory with more or less 3,000 firearms). The whole military establishment knew about this and yet made no attempt to retrieve the firearms and arrest the Ampatuans for illegal possession of firearms. Armed goons of Ampatuans in their hundreds, roaming around the province remained untouched by the local military and police forces.
Not content with lording over a single province, the clan also positioned one of the sons of Andal Ampatuan, Zaldy Ampatuan to be the governor the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Currently, the 22 mayors of Maguindanao are Andal Ampatuan’s sons, grandsons, and other relatives. The clan wants to stay in power for it is only in such position that it can defend itself and further enlarge their larceny at the great cost of its constituents that, they claim, love Andal Ampatuan very much.
They can tolerate opposition in the ARMM election but not within Maguindanao. Overconfident with the national support they are getting from Malacanang and the military establishment, they continue to assert a self-imposed “franchise” over the whole province of Maguindanao. Opposition in an electoral exercise in Maguindanao becomes anathema to them.
For the Ampatuans, Buluan’s Vice Mayor Ishmael Mangudadatu was no longer tolerable when he filed his certificate candidacy for governor of Maguindanao. For this, his wife, his two sisters and their companions had to be punished severely. They had to be killed.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s statement that “no effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law” will not go beyond her press release. The Ampatuan clan is undeniably her biggest pillar of strength in Central Mindanao practically during her incumbency as the illegitimate president.
It is a fact that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s regime has survived by rewarding or buying the support of local political clans that include the worst types—warlords, despotic landlords and land-grabbers. The Ampatuan clan is the personification of all of these.
The Ampatuans delivered the votes for GMA when she ran for the presidency and with an astonishing 12-0 vote for the ruling coalition’s senatorial slate last 2004.
With the support of the Ampatuans and other warlords in Mindanao, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has succeeded in securing the widening American, Australian, Canadian, Japanese, Malaysian and other foreign economic interests in agri-business, mining and oil and natural gas exploration and exploitation. With their support, it also became easier for Arroyo to host the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTF-P) that secures US hold on the strategically located islands and sea lanes in the region.
The semi-feudal and neo-colonial character of the system will always breed the likes of Ampatuan.
Changing the system is the best guarantee of rendering justice to all victims of warlordism, be it in mainland Mindanao or in its island provinces.
Marxist Leninist Party of the Philippines
Mindanao
November 24, 2009