Only GMA can end the tension, political violence in Maguindanao – Moro group

DAVAO CITY - The militant Moro group in Mindanao, Suara Bangsamoro, dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to put a “decisive end” to the tension and the other future conflict expected to still break out during the entire election period in Maguindanao and the rest of the Cotabato provinces in Central Mindanao, saying the powerful political families were her allies,

“Only GMA can put an end to this crisis knowing that the rise in the killings in Maguindanao coincided with her rise into power and that of her political allies in Maguindanao,” said Amira Lidasan, the spokesperson of the group, in her text message to reporters on Tuesday.

Lidasan was alluding to the Ampatuans, which in the 2007 elections, figured in the controversial turnout of perfect voting for the administration.

“If [these killings] will not be resolved, we will expect more election related violence in the ARMM,” she said.

But Toy Mangudadato, brother of Buluan town Vice Mayor, Ismael Mangudadato, has already assured that they would not “make any move that is against the law”, following concerns that the massacre may trigger more bloody retaliatory killings in the nature of the rido, the traditional Moro practice of exacting vengeance.

“We are a disciplined family and we will let the law takes its own course

In his interview with the GMA TV in Davao City on November 24, he said that their attention now was how to retrieve their dead, whose graveyards were yet to located.

He repeated previous statements of his brother Ismael who accused the Ampatuan clan of the massacre saying that their long running and bloody feud “is the knowledge of everybody and this massacre is obviously politically motivated”.

“Look, they raped our women, they killed even the innocent ones,” he said. “We never expected them to hurt the women.”

He also disclosed that the members of the media accompanied the group “because they said they were excited to witness the filing of candidacies of the Mangudadato who will square off with the Ampatuan”.

“They said ‘this is exciting and a scoop’,” he said.

The armed forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang told BusinessMirror yesterday, that it would decide soon if it would add an additional battalion in Maguindanao to replace the 46th Infantry Battalion that was pulled out a few hours before the massacre happened on the same morning Monday.

“This forced the 64th IB to extend its area of responsibility,” he said. “Ideally, in situations like this, any new unit that is added should have no previous experience or exposure in the place to ensure impartiality, and to complement the move of the PNP in relieving the town police chief in the area.”

He said that Eastmincom chief, Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer attended the closed door meeting with Defense Sec. Norberto Gonzalez and Mindanao Affairs Adviser, Sec. Jesus Dureza in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. Ferrer could not be immediately reached for comment.

On late Tuesday afternoon, Dureza and Gonzalez also met privately with Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan in Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao.

Cabangbang also expressed hope that the massacre of the members of a Moro political clan and journalists who accompanied them “would help dissuade other political families to commit a similar act and thus allow Filipinos to have a peaceful elections next year”.

“We hope something positive would come out of this incident, that other groups would learn the bitter lesson that nothing desirable has come out of it,” he said.

He said the eastern half of Mindanao, which include the traditionally politically explosive Cotabato provinces, have several other areas where political violence was also expected to erupt, but Cabangbang said that “they don’t have the same brutality and gruesome nature as what happened yesterday”.

In Davao City, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte gathered the police and the military’s special anti-terrorist unit, Task Force Davao to a meeting to prevent the violence between the two clans from spilling over to the city.