SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/28 November) – “Ampatuan Massacre” or “Maguindanao Massacre?”
Several national television networks and newspapers refer to the November 23 mass murder of at least 57 persons in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao by armed men believed led by Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., as the “Maguindanao Massacre.”
But other news organizations, among them MindaNews, datelinephilippines.com, the National Union of Journalists of the Philipines and several columnists refer to it as “Ampatuan Massacre” because it is specific: it happened in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, and that’s how massacres are named in this country.
That the name of the town – Ampatuan – happens to be the family name of the principal suspect, Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., is incidental.
Massacres in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao, are not named after the province but the town or even sitio where it happened.
Remember the April 4, 1995 Ipil Massacre where at least 53 persons were killed in Ipil, then still part of Zamboanga del Sur? No one refered to that as “Zamboanga del Sur Massacre” when it was still under that province, or “Zamboanga Sibugay Massacre” now that it’s part of the latter.
The June 1989 massacre in Sitio Rano, Barangay Binaton, then Digos town in Davao del Sur where at least 39 persons, mostly women and children were killed by the New People’s Army, was not referred to as “Davao del Sur Massacre” but “Sitio Rano Massacre.”
The Maimbung Massacre in February last year in Sulu was referred to as “Maimbung Massacre,” not “Sulu Massacre.”
The “Jabidah Massacre” of 1968 is more known as such than as “Corregidor Massacre.”
The 1987 massacre of farmers near Malacanang is referred to as “Mendiola Massacre,” not as “Manila Massacre.”
The June 1971 Manili Massacre in Carmen town, North Cotabato, where at least 79 Moro men, women and children were herded into a mosque and killed allegedly by government forces, is not known as “North Cotabato Massacre” or “Carmen Massacre” but as “Manili Massacre.”
Muhammad Ameen, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) secretariat, said that while the MILF is outraged by the Ampatuan Massacre, “it also called on the collective memory of the Filipinos, Moros, and the international community to remember the thousands of Moros who were also massacred by Philippine state forces and to this day, justice was not served.”
He enumerated the massacres, as follows: “Palimbang(1,000 Moros brutally killed), Patikul Massacre (700), Pata Island Massacre (more than 2,000), Manili Massacre (70), Kauswagan Massacre (40), Magsaysay Massacre (66), and many more.”
“Many people of this country did not care for these victims who were also human beings and deserved right to live,” he said.
Palimbang Massacre is not known as “Sultan Kudarat Massacre” and Patikul Masacre and Pata Island Massacre are not known as “Sulu Massacre.”
Butch del Castillo, columnist of Business Mirror says he believes “the more accurate term that ought to be used is the ‘Ampatuan massacre,’ to pinpoint precisely in which town in the province of Maguindanao this ‘supreme act of inhumanity’ was carried out by suspected political warlords.”
“Why can’t media call a spade a spade? Is it for fear that the use of ‘Ampatuan’ might be tagged as malicious by the politically powerful and influential Ampatuan family? What could be wrong with ‘Ampatuan massacre’ when the referent of the modifier Ampatuan is the scene of the horrible crime, which just happens to be the municipality of Ampatuan?” Del Castillo asked.
Del Castillo cited the 1901 Balangiga Massacre which is not called “Samar Massacre;” the post World War II Maliwalu Massacre, an agrarian-related massacre which is not referred to as “Tarlac Massacre.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)