After the success of Manny Pacquiao on Las Vegas Nevada for the winning fight againt Miguel Cotto on 12 round boxing match,,,,
and after Efren Pinaflorida named as CNN 2009 HERO OF THE YEAR ,,heres now the new story that the international news agencies got the eye to SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES specially to MAGUINDANAO,, a massacre still counting for death tolls..as of today news reports says that its almost 46 of total..
PHILSTAR.COM
HEADLINE: Maguindanao death toll now 46: Emergency rule in two provinces
AMPATUAN, Maguindanao , Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed two southern provinces under emergency rule Tuesday as soldiers and police unearthed more bodies from one of the worst incidents of election violence in the nation’s history, pushing the death toll to 46.
Police and soldiers found 22 bodies in a hillside mass grave Tuesday, adding to the 24 bullet-riddled bodies recovered near the scene of Monday’s massacre in Maguindanao province, said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna of the Central Mindanao region.
An adviser to President Arroyo has described the massacre as the worst in the country’s recent history.
A media rights watchdog also says that it appears to be the world’s worst mass killing of journalists, with as many as 23 feared dead.
Dozens of gunmen abducted the group of journalists, supporters and relatives of a gubernatorial candidate as they traveled through Amputuan town Monday to file candidacy documents in the provincial capital for May 2010 elections.
The gubernatorial candidate, Esmael Mangudadatu, who was not a part of the convoy, accused a powerful political rival from the Amputuan clan of being behind the slayings. There is a long-standing bitterness between the two families.
Mangudadatu’s wife, Genalyn, and his two sisters, were among the dead.
The bodies found in the grave, about six feet deep, were dumped on top of one another. They included a pregnant woman.
Officials were still trying to determine the exact number of people intercepted by the gunmen and whether any had survived.
Authorities said the convoy comprised about 40 people, but Cataluna said at least five other people were still missing.
Arroyo declared an emergency in the provinces of Maguindanao and nearby Sultan Kudarat, allowing security forces to conduct random searches and set up checkpoints to pursue the gunmen.
Arroyo said she ordered police and the military “to conduct immediate, relentless pursuit against the perpetrators to secure the affected areas.”
The state of emergency will remain in place until the president is confident that law and order have been restored in the region, Press Sec. Cerge Remonde said.
Police and Joy Sonza, head of a small private TV station, UNTV, identified at least three journalists among the dead.
Noynoy Espina, vice chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said at least 20 other journalists were believed to be among those killed, based on reports from union chapters in the area.
If confirmed, it would be the “largest single massacre of journalists ever,” according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
The government stressed that it would go after the culprits, regardless of where the investigation leads.
“No one will be untouchable,” Remonde told reporters, calling Monday’s killings “unconscionable.”
Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa relieved Maguindanao’s provincial police chief and three other officers of their duties and confined them to camp while they are investigated. One of the police officers was reported to have been seen in the company of the gunmen and pro-government militiamen who stopped the convoy, police said.
Mangudadatu said Tuesday that four witnesses had told him the convoy was stopped by gunmen loyal to Andal Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor belonging to a powerful clan and his family’s fierce political rival.
He refused to name the witnesses or offer other details.
“It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole (for the bodies),” Mangudadatu said.
The Ampatuans could not be reached for comment.
The region, among the nation’s poorest and awash with weapons, has been intermittently ruled by the Ampatuan family since 2001. The family is allied with Arroyo.
Arroyo’s political adviser Gabriel Claudio said he was meeting with Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where Maguindanao province is located, to try to mediate in the long-running rivalry between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus.
Shocking
Shocked journalists demanded answers from authorities on Tuesday following the unprecedented murders of at least 12 local reporters, who became ensnared in a feud between rival political clans.
International media groups also expressed outrage over Monday’s massacre, in which gunmen allegedly hired by the governor of a province in the strife-torn south of the country abducted and shot dead at least 46 people.
The Philippines has long been recognized as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, but hardened reporters in the Southeast Asian nation were reduced to shock by the scale of the slaughter.
Members of the staff of Manila Bulletin, one of the leading national daily newspapers, were also in mourning after one of their long-time colleagues, Bong Reblando, who had seven children, was found to be among those murdered.
“We are deeply saddened and we denounce this blow to press freedom,” the paper said in a statement.
“We call on the authorities concerned, both our police officials and our political leaders, to get to the bottom of this incident and ensure that justice is done.”
It emerged Tuesday that local journalists who regularly cover Maguindanao had stayed away from the opposition activity amid concerns the Ampatuan clan may resort to violence.
Most of the reporters who were targeted had come from neighboring General Santos city.
Bong’s widow, Myrna Reblando, said she had tried to dissuade her husband from covering the opposition nominating process.
“I told him, ‘You will be put in a dangerous situation there and you should not proceed’,” she said on local radio.
But Bong told his wife he thought he would be safe because of the large group of journalists covering the nomination event, as well as the presence of opposition lawyers.
Meanwhile, global press freedom and rights groups said the event stained the Philippines’ international reputation.
“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” said Clothilde Le Coz, the United States director for the global press watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
The Thailand-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance said the Philippines had one of the highest rates of journalist killings in the world “even prior to this heinous episode of barbarism”.
Before the massacre, the New York-based monitor Committee to Protect Journalists ranked the Philippines as the fourth deadliest country for journalists in terms of reporters’ deaths for 2009.
However Monday’s killings will see the Philippines leapfrog Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan into the top spot.
In Cebu, the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines expressed their concern for the welfare of the members of the media.
NUJP Cebu Chapter president Rico Lucena said that they strongly condemn the abduction and killing of the group of politicians, their supporters and the journalists who were accompanying them at that time.
Lucena said that they consider the massacre of journalists “as the darkest point of democracy and free press in this recent time.”
Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama, president of the Vice Mayor’s League of the Philippines, has also condemned the massacre.
Among those killed was the wife of Bulunan, Maguindanao Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.
Rama personally called Mangudadatu to express his concern and relay his condolences. – AP, AJ de la Torre and Elly Bolonos/NLQ (FREEMAN NEWS)
what happen to the philippines?
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