The Philippine president placed two southern provinces under emergency rule yesterday as security forces 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 yesterday, adding to the 24 bullet-riddled bodies that had been recovered near the scene of Monday’s massacre in Maguindanao province, Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna of the Central Mindanao region said.
The southern region of the Philippines is wracked by violent political rivalries, in addition to a long-running Islamic insurgency, but the killings have shocked this Southeast Asian nation. One adviser to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has described the massacre as the worst in the country’s recent history.
A media rights watchdog also said it appeared 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 township on Monday to file candidacy documents in the provincial capital for elections in May.
The gubernatorial candidate, Ismael 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 longstanding bitterness between the two families.
Mangudadatu’s wife, Genalyn, and his two sisters, were among the dead.
The bodies found in the grave, about 2m deep, were dumped on top of one another. They included a pregnant woman.
Grieving relatives helped identify their loved ones before they were given the bodies, covered by banana leaves, for burial.
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.
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