Philippines Massacre / Philippines Gruesome Massacre

Philippines-massacre

Philippines Massacre - The Philippine government declared a state of emergency after search teams pulled 22 more bodies out of shallow graves in the Philippines Tuesday. Death toll rises in Philippines massacre to 46, which government officials called it the worse pre-election violence in the country’s history.

On Monday, the kidnapped group — which included the wife of gubernatorial candidate Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu — was abducted while in a convoy to file his nomination papers for the May election. He had received threats that he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself.

According to army officials, about 100 gunmen Monday attacked the convoy, which included journalists. And one adviser of the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has described the Philippines massacre as the worst in the country’s recent history. A media rights watchdog also says that it appears to be the world’s worst mass killing of journalists, with as many as 20 reportedly among the dead.

Those killed include Mangudadatu’s wife and one of his sisters. The gubernatorial candidate, Ismael Mangudadatu, who was not a part of the convoy, accused a powerful political rival from the Amputuan clan of being behind the slayings due to a longstanding bitterness between the two families.

The military was deployed Tuesday in parts of Maguindanao to prevent more violence and the government was placing survivors of the attack into witness protection.

Philippines Massacre

Maguindanao is a province in Mindanao, a Muslim autonomous region out of the control of the central government.

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.

Elections in the Philippines have long been stained by violence, but the Philippines gruesome massacre in broad daylight have shocked the nation.