Philippines gunmen kill 21 in election violence

November 23, 2009

Twenty-one politicians and journalists abducted in the southern Philippines have been found dead, the army says.

The group was seized on the southern island of Mindanao early on Monday.

The military said they were taken by armed men as they tried to file a nomination for a candidate for forthcoming local polls.

Elections in the Philippines are often marred by violence, particularly in the south, where clashes connected to local rivalries and insurgencies erupt.

The country is to hold national elections in May 2010. Registration for local and national races began earlier this month.

Jess Dureza, adviser to President Gloria Arroyo in the volatile Mindanao region, said it was “a gruesome massacre of civilians unequalled in recent history”.

He recommended that a state of emergency be imposed in the area.

Clan leader

According to local reports, the group were on the way to an election office in Maguindanao province to file nominations papers for a local mayor, Ismael Mangudadatu.

ANALYSIS

Vaudine England, former BBC reporter in the Philippines

Election violence is not unusual in the Philippines but the scale of this attack is shocking. Every election period features assassinations of rivals, particularly in provincial areas where the forces of law and order are often tightly connected to local clans.

Every local politician has some form of personal security which, in some areas, balloons to private armies of scores or hundreds of well-armed, unregulated gunmen. In this case, the Mangudadatu and Ampatuan clans were not always at war - but the Mangudadatu family’s bid to run for governor appears to have provoked a dramatic rise in tension.

It remains unclear exactly how many people are dead, and who was responsible. But these killings are also unusual for including women and journalists.

At this stage the violence does not appear to be related to the broader Muslim insurgencies in Mindanao geared toward securing more autonomy from the central government. Power and money - control over lucrative local interests - seem the most likely motives.

Mr Mangudadatu was reportedly planning to challenge local clan leader Datu Andal Ampatuan for the governor’s office in the mainly Muslim province.

He was not part of the group but his wife, lawyers, aides and a number of journalists were said to have been among those taken when their three-vehicle convoy was hijacked.

Lt Col Romeo Brawner, a spokesman for the Philippines armed forces, told the BBC the military had recovered 21 bodies, 13 female and eight male.

“Some of them have been mutilated - there are signs of mutilation. However there are also reports of beheading, but we have not yet received any confirmation about this,” he said.

Mr Mangudadatu’s wife was said to be among the dead. Reports said the group that set off had numbered about 30 people in total. Troops were said to be searching the area.

Col Brawner said it appeared the violence was linked to local political tensions.

“This is not the first time that we are experiencing this kind of violence related to politics or related to the elections that we’re going to have next year,” he said. “However, this is one of the bloodiest that we have experienced so far.”

Elections can be particularly violent in Maguindano and other parts of Mindanao island.

Both communist and separatist Muslim rebels are fighting troops there and local politics can be dominated by strongmen backed up by private militias.

Vaudine England, former BBC reporter in the Philippines, says both clans in this case are allied to Mrs Arroyo, limiting analysts’ expectations of any effective response from the central government.

Philippines gunmen kill 21 in election violence

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