Media on Elections and Violence 2016
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REGIONAL ARMM & SELECTED PROVINCES IN MINDANAO Background Guns play a major role in the politics of the ARMM. Guns facilitate the operation of a “shadow economy” that thrives in the midst of so much poverty. Guns figure in the clan wars which intensify during elections. The digital news site MindaNews reported the stepped up efforts of both military and police forces to address the rising cases of violence in Cotabato City and neighboring areas. PNP Chief Director General Ricardo Marquez recommended the creation of Police Special Units (PSUs) in the run-up to the May 9 elections in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao identified as “areas of immediate concern.” The Philippine National Police declared in December 2015 six election EWAs, two of them from ARMM: Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. The four other EWAs are Pangasinan (Region 1), Masbate (Region 5), Eastern Samar (Region 8) and Negros Oriental (Negros Island Region). On April 1, The Philippine Star reported three areas have been added to the EWAs: Abra (CAR), Nueva Ecija (Region 3) and Lanao del Norte (Region 10) Maguindanao The home province of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Maguindanao has figured prominently in the news in recent years. Landmark incidents of violence has marred the image of the province with narratives of bloody conflict, including the “mis-encounter” in Mamasapano which left 48 soldiers of the Special Action Forces (SAF) dead in a cornfield in Barangay Tukanalipao, the tragic images of which were projected in the media in such a way as to trigger latent prejudice among Filipinos against Moros and effectively halted the passage of the Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL) in Congress. Ampatuan Massacre 2009 Nearly seven years ago, the worst election-related violence in Philippine history took place in Ampatuan town of the province. A member of the Ampatuan clan, the mayor of the town by the same name and son of the family patriarch and then incumbent governor of the province, stands accused in an on-going trial for the massacre of 58 persons on November 29. Thirty-two were members of the community-based media who had accompanied the wife of a political rival, Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who was on her way to file her husband’s certificate of candidacy on his behalf. The family had hoped that her presence along with other women had hoped to ward off attacks from rival groups. With lawyers, members of family and the local media, her convoy was diverted from the highway and led to an isolated slope in the hills of Shariff Aguak where everyone, including some people traveling on the same route were killed, their bodies buried in a shallow common grave. Datu Unsay was expected to file his COC for Governor and reportedly wanted to run unopposed like his father in 2007. Members of the Ampatuan clan are accused in a trial which has lasted six year so far. Maguindanao has since remained an election hotspot and in this year’s polls, posting the highest number of violent incidents in the ARMM as well as the highest number of guns confiscated for violating the election gun ban. Ironically, the province is still under a “State of Emergency” (SOE) which followed the declaration of martial law as a result of the massacre and the subsequent arrest of members of the Ampatuan family implicated in the massacre. Only authorized persons are supposed to be carrying firearms. No one seems to remember that the state of emergency (SOE) has not been lifted in the province of Maguindanao. The SOE was declared by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the provinces of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and the city of Cotabato, “to prevent and suppress the occurrence of similar other incidents of lawless violence.” Proclamation 1959 declared martial law over the province, except for some areas, at 9 PM on December 4 2009, citing the alleged rebellion of the Ampatuan clan. The declaration was criticized as “overkill.” Martial law allowed government forces to immediately taken into custody by midnight, of the other suspects in the Ampatuan Massacre: the patriarch, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., then acting Maguindanao Governor, his sons — ARMM Governor ZaldyAmpatuan, Shariff Aguak Mayor Anwar Ampatuan, Sr., Sajid Ampatuan, who assumed the post of Maguindanao Governor in January 2009, and Mamasapano Mayor Akmad Ampatuan, who assumed the post of Maguindano Vice Governor also in January 2009. Principal suspect Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr., aka Datu Unsay, was turned over to authorities on November 26, 2009. |
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