A group of more than 40 people travelling in a convoy to deposit candidacy papers for next year’s gubernatorial election was intercepted by up to 100 armed men and abducted near Datu Abdullah Sangki town, southern Philippines, 23 November. The bodies of 21 people were found nearby riddled with bullets. Witnesses say some of them had been mutilated.
The convoy was made up of family members of the candidate for governor of Magunindanao province in the southern Philippines’ Mindano region, Ishmail Mangundadatu, aides, supporters and members of the media. The candidate is trying to win in a province traditionally run by a rival political family, the Amaputans.
The Philippine army had secured the area of the massacre and was waiting for a team of investigators from the Philippine National Police. It is believed that the death toll could rise. A presidential advisor, Jesus Dureza called for a state of emergency to be called, saying “there must be a total stop to this senseless violence”.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, Guardian, Philippine Inquirer
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 23 November 2009.
Filed under: World news
November 24th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
In Philippines, does it mean you can rob, you can kill if you’re an ally you wont go to jail?
November 25th, 2009 at 3:56 am
Jim,
Sadly, it is possible.
My heart bleeds being a journalists myself.