46+ people killed in Mindano. Shroom nowhere to be found.

[MKSheppard]

Link

Emergency Rule After Philippines Massacre
12:22pm UK, Tuesday November 24, 2009
Huw Borland, Sky News Online

The Philippines has imposed emergency rule in two provinces and a city after gunmen killed 46 people in an election-linked massacre.

Many of the victims were women from the powerful Mangudadatu clan. About a dozen journalists were also among the dead.

"There is an urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other incidents of lawless violence," said Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, announcing the emergency.

The military and police now have wide powers of arrest in the neighbouring southern provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and nearby Cotabato City.

The emergency orders were issued as troops dug up hastily covered graves, on a hillside in Maguindanao, to recover the victims of Monday's massacre.

Police spokesman Leonardo Espina said 46 bodies had been found.

A photographer saw many of the bodies with bullet and machete wounds. Some of the dead men had their hands tied behind their backs and one of the women was pregnant.

Former senator Ralph Recto said: "This atrocity leaves a deep wound in our national psyche. It is as if each one of us has been stabbed."

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered extra troops to the region and sacked the Maguindanao provincial police chief.

The Mangudadatus, accompanied by lawyers and journalists, were on their way to file an election nomination for one of their clan.

The convoy was held up by about 100 armed men, who herded the group away from the highway and then attacked them with M-16 rifles and machetes.

The dead included Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, whose husband Esmael wanted to contest the governorship of Maguindanao against Datu Andal Ampatuan, the head of another clan.

Mr Ampatuan, an ally of President Arroyo, has been elected governor of Maguindanao three times previously.

-------------------

Link

At least 21 killed in attack on journalists and supporters of Philippine politician
By Jim Gomez
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

MANILA -- Dozens of gunmen hijacked a convoy carrying journalists and family and supporters of a candidate for provincial governor, killing at least 21 of the travelers Monday in the southern Philippines' worst political violence in years.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bloodshed in the predominantly Muslim region, which has been wracked by political tensions between rival clans.

The convoy of vans, carrying about 40 people, was hijacked in Maguindanao province, about 560 miles south of Manila. Army troops later found the bullet-riddled bodies of 13 women and eight men, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton said.

It was unclear whether anyone survived the attack. An army and police search for hostages was underway Monday.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said at least 10 local reporters were part of the convoy. Their organizations failed to reach them, leading them to conclude that they, too, were killed.

"Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day," Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

"The frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodshed," it said.

The politician, Ismael Mangudadatu, was not in the convoy and said his wife called him by mobile phone shortly before she and her entourage were abducted.

"She said . . . they were stopped by 100 uniformed armed men . . . then her line got cut off," he said. He said his wife and relatives were among the dead.

Victims' relatives blamed political rivals in national elections slated for May 2010.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s. But a presidential adviser, Jesus Dureza, said Monday's massacre was "unequaled in recent history."

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In other news, Phillipine authorities have no whearabouts of the man likely behind this massacre, Pablo Shroombar. They are calling for him to turn himself in to the authorities on account of unbearable Shroominess.

Heh. Seriously., I thought of Shroomy the first thing when I read this in the WaPo today.

[Shroom Man 777]

Aw, I wuv you too sheppoes.

But yeah, shit country. I mean, fuck, this kind of shit isn't supposed to happen in this day and age, not even in this miserable little country. We're no different from any other third world fuckhole.

[Steel]

Muslim insurgency killed 120,000 people since the 70s? Thats something of this scale every 6 weeks?? How did they do that? If this kind of thing isn't common then did they nuke somewhere big in the 70s or is it common, but just reported because there were 12 journalists killed this time?

[Sarevok]

Philippines population is around 90 million. You probably are not going to notice 8-10 people dying each day in political violence spread across the country. Such a death rate is quite normal in third world.

[MKSheppard]

Except it's not spread around the country. It's basically been centered in the Southern islandy part of it.

[Sarevok]

Except it's not spread around the country. It's basically been centered in the Southern islandy part of it.

Oh I see.

Then what do you think should be a reasonable death figure ?

[Shroom Man 777]

It's a southern part that's like a fringe world that nobody gives a fuck about.

These people and journos weren't killed by terrorists, it was a political killing since they were apparently trying to go and watch a rival candidate register his campaign, and maybe the guy who is currently in power ordered a hit or they didn't like seeing rivals running against them or something. It's total shit, in Mindanao you've got deathsquads running around enacting brutal vigilante justice, it's not just militant thugs or shit.

Fuck this. Living where I live, you'd almost think that it's a civilized country, but this shit happens - dozens of people dead and buried in a fucking ditch, inside their fucking cars, like a mass grave in the Balkans or something - and you realize that there are fucking animals just running around in places you can't see or don't want to see. No wonder why shitloads of us just want to become nurses just to leave the fucking country and earn dollars in some foreign land.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Well, Shroom, nurses are in high demand abroad, so the moment you are done, you could go earn a fat paycheck elsewhere. It's a plus that your English is good too.

[Shroom Man 777]

I'm just sad at the state of the country, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Philippines, I'm also sad that most people's solution is tantamount to abandoning the country for opportunities abroad. It's like nobody wants to stay here because there's nothing here at all... and no one can fault them since they're right. Or, at least, that's the perception of a lot of people.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'm just sad at the state of the country, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Philippines, I'm also sad that most people's solution is tantamount to abandoning the country for opportunities abroad. It's like nobody wants to stay here because there's nothing here at all... and no one can fault them since they're right. Or, at least, that's the perception of a lot of people.

You aren't the only one who thinks of abandoning the country at the least. The only reason I'm still staying is because of contractual obligations.

[Shroom Man 777]

Difference is that your nation never has shit like this happen.

[Netko]

Fuck this. Living where I live, you'd almost think that it's a civilized country, but this shit happens - dozens of people dead and buried in a fucking ditch, inside their fucking cars, like a mass grave in the Balkans or something

Don't diss the Balkans - aside from our regularly scheduled every-half-century nationalistic/ethnic bloodletting, its a pretty nice place to live, comparatively, when said bloodletting/war isn't happening - the crime rates (and especially the murder rate) are low if you exclude organized crime (which is mostly a corruption problem, unlike some countries where organized crime means people dropping dead all over the place); lower then the European average and comparable to Western Europe (excluding the UK, which has noticeably worse non-organized crime statistics) and better then Eastern Europe. At the end of the day Balkan countries are lower first world, upper second world, depending on particular country, by their quality of life - statistically, its actually better to be impoverished in the Balkans then in the US, although that is an artifact of the US' "fuck the poor" attitudes.

Something like the stuff mentioned in the OP couldn't happen in the Balkans these days (well, maybe Kosovo, but even there I doubt it). Hopefully, in 20-30 years, when the next bloodletting is scheduled for, we can take a pass on it, like most Europeans did on the previous go around (the one after WW2).

[Grif]

I'm just sad at the state of the country, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Philippines, I'm also sad that most people's solution is tantamount to abandoning the country for opportunities abroad. It's like nobody wants to stay here because there's nothing here at all... and no one can fault them since they're right. Or, at least, that's the perception of a lot of people.

I can say the same for Malaysians. Though for completely different reasons, number one being endemic corruption and discriminatory policies which has pervaded the nation for decades.

[Ilya Muromets]

Sad as it is, I can honestly say it doesn't surprise me. Mindanao is the country's shithole. Other than a few major cities and some industrial centers, the government gives fuck all about the island. The rest of it is a barely agricultural patch controlled by Muslim insurgent groups and self-styled warlords warring with vigilantes and, if the current government feels like gaining a few political points, they send in the military to. Any time the military does make any progress against any of the aforementioned militant groups (like the highly locally publicized capture of a major islamic insurgent forest base complex), those gains are always pissed way when the government feels like another round of gaining political brownie points (to show how good a peacemaker she is, the current president gave back the complex a lot of poor bastards died to capture as part of peace talks with the insurgent group--who naturally up and broke the most recent peace accords less than a month after). Then there are the ethnic and religious killings to take into account.

It's like we have a piece of a few of the worse parts of Africa. I'm just lucky I live in the same city as shroom, which is one of the industrial centers and is thus relatively stable and safe.

I'm just sad at the state of the country, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Philippines, I'm also sad that most people's solution is tantamount to abandoning the country for opportunities abroad. It's like nobody wants to stay here because there's nothing here at all... and no one can fault them since they're right. Or, at least, that's the perception of a lot of people.

I can say the same for Malaysians. Though for completely different reasons, number one being endemic corruption and discriminatory policies which has pervaded the nation for decades.

Oh, no, those aren't completely different reasons at all. Here in the Philippines, that's counted along with the reasons a lot of people want to leave, along with all the violence. And, unlike Shroom, I guess I'll have to learn to live with those since I have no plans to bug out.

[Shroom Man 777]

News. That Ampatuan dude is now in jail as the investigation proceeds, and it turns out the heavy machinery used to dig that mass grave and bury those people had his name on 'em.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

News. That Ampatuan dude is now in jail as the investigation proceeds, and it turns out the heavy machinery used to dig that mass grave and bury those people had his name on 'em.

Well, that is fucking ridiculous. The guy's that blatant?

[Shroom Man 777]

Since they were stopping lots of people who went through that road and were killing shitloads of people, even those who had nothing to do with their targets, and raping the women, so I guess they really did need some heavy machinery to hide their shit and the only ones available that were convenient had that guy's name on it... oh, they also tried blaming the Muslim insurgency for this. Meh.

These guys have fucking private armies and shit, so I guess subtlety was beyond them. Fuckpieces.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Since they were stopping lots of people who went through that road and were killing shitloads of people, even those who had nothing to do with their targets, and raping the women, so I guess they really did need some heavy machinery to hide their shit and the only ones available that were convenient had that guy's name on it... oh, they also tried blaming the Muslim insurgency for this. Meh.

These guys have fucking private armies and shit, so I guess subtlety was beyond them. Fuckpieces.

So why did Arroyo have a gang leader for an ally? This doesn't make good political sense, but then again, I'm not familiar with Filipino politics.

[Shroom Man 777]

Because up to now, he was uncontested in his region? Well established political dynasties as powerful allies go hand in hand, as does power with corruption. Really, in some places, it's public knowledge that the long-lasting local leaders have killers on their payroll. There're vigilante deathsquads and recently, a couple of years ago, ex convicts and snatchers were routinely shot to death by motorcycle gunmen in my own supposedly peaceful city. Many people actually support these things here, too!