Mindanao Massacre

A day after Efren Peñaflorida’s CNN Hero of the Year Award, the whole country was instantly robbed of its moment of pride when news of a ruthless crime that took place in Maguindanao alarmed the entire nation. 57 Dead in The Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre.

Quote “http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34123053/”

AMPATUAN, Philippines - A few miles off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.

Nearby, bodies were being laid out under banana leaves Tuesday as police — their faces covered against the stench — unearthed a mass grave containing 22 victims from Monday's ambush on an election caravan. The discovery brought the death toll to 46 — an unprecedented act of violence at the outset of the country's election season.

As many as five people remained unaccounted for.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring southern province, sending extra troops and police to try to impose the rule of law.

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said.

Few think she will be successful in the impoverished, lawless region that has been outside the central government's reach for generations, and where warlords backed by private armies go by their own rules.

Authorities said the victims included at least 13 Filipino journalists from regional newspapers, TV and radio stations who were accompanying family members and supporters of a gubernatorial candidate out to file his nomination papers for May 2010 elections.

I bleed at the thought of the defenseless victims being tortured like animals to their deaths. It just sickens me how anyone is capable of committing such a horrendous and merciless act. Calling the perpetrators inhumane and barbaric isn’t even enough. Only the works of a monster can be associated to a crime like that!

What a heartless human! Do I still have to call them HUMAN??!?! Nah!! They are evil!!! spawns of Satan who are not really afraid to take other people’s lives.

It’s heartbreaking to watch the news and see the victims’ families crying, I don’t know them but I can feel their pain. I hope the Media will not stop with the updates so that this will not be whitewashed and their will be justice but I doubt it will even happen considering our government’s ties with the suspects.

More than 25 days have passed, yet still no arrests. Instead of sending the Army to surround the warlord's compound and arrest him, President Arroyo has to do something to put those criminals behind the bars!

Just hope this ordeal can serve as a wake up call for our government. Justice should be served to the victims of these abhorrent acts.

After a massacre some of the countries are advising not to go in the Philippines. AU State Department issued a travel warning to avoid travel to the southern islands of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, where the killings took place.

Here’s a site I’ve seen in web:

http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Philippines

“We strongly advise you not to travel to Mindanao, including mainland Mindanao, the Zamboanga Peninsula and the Sulu Archipelago, due to the very high threat of terrorist attack, including kidnapping, and related counter-terrorism operations. Armed clashes between Philippine security forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front could occur without warning, including in central Mindanao. Attacks occurred in mid-2009 against military and civilian targets. Further attacks cannot be ruled out.”

What a shame!

What will happen it our tourism?

What will happen to those people who have work because of the tourist?! What they going to eat?!?!