"The Ampatuans, notorious for running a large private army, were allied with Arroyo and helped her receive crucial votes from the volatile southern region during 2004 elections. Arroyo’s ruling party expelled the clan after the massacre."
Why not just rig an election as usual?
And cui bono off this backfire(?)?
"Over the years, the over-stretched military and police have been arming civilian volunteers as a backup force. In areas like Maguindanao, some have become de facto private armies on the payroll of local political warlords."
Translation: the government turned on them.
"Philippines president imposes martial law; Rights groups, rivals accuse her of overreacting" by Pat Roque, Associated Press | December 6, 2009
GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines - The president imposed martial law yesterday on a southern province where 57 people were killed in a political massacre, while security forces detained members of a powerful clan accused of plotting the attack and fomenting a rebellion.
It was the first time martial rule has been declared in the country since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed it more than three decades ago. With memories of abuses from that time still fresh in their minds, opposition politicians and human rights groups questioned President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s action, saying she overreacted to a police problem.
Government officials defended Arroyo, saying she acted decisively to bring suspects in the mass slayings into custody and head off a rebellion by the Ampatuan clan, which has ruled impoverished Maguindanao Province unopposed for years.
Rebelling against who? They were ALLIED with the government and helped her steal, 'er, win an election!!
Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan patriarch and a former governor who was among those detained yesterday, and at least six other family members are the main suspects in the Nov. 23 attack on a political rival’s convoy. Some 30 journalists were among the dead. The family has denied involvement.
That's why this was a story day after day. Journalists were killed (which makes this stink all the more).
The Ampatuans, notorious for running a large private army, were allied with Arroyo and helped her receive crucial votes from the volatile southern region during 2004 elections. Arroyo’s ruling party expelled the clan after the massacre.
That's what makes this so perplexing. The Ampatuans had nothing to gain by doing this; however, the government had everything to gain by pinning this on them, especially if they wanted to take action against them.
Who really benefited here, world?
The martial law proclamation allows troops to make arrests without court warrants and to restore order, Arroyo’s top Cabinet member, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, announced on national television yesterday.... Fidel Ramos, a former president who was a supporter of Arroyo but has recently been critical of her actions, described her move as “overkill.’’
In yesterday’s announcement, Ermita cited military reports as saying heavily armed supporters of the Ampatuans had “plans to undertake hostile action’’ if clan members were arrested. “We felt that this is a very imminent threat, so we recommended this proclamation,’’ said General Victor Ibrado, military chief of staff. “By their sheer number, they are really a threat to the peace and order of the province.’’
It all sounds so familiar, doesn't it?
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the arrested men would be charged with rebellion, which carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison. CenterLaw, a group of human rights lawyers, said there were insufficient grounds for martial law and would challenge it in the Supreme Court. “The Constitution limits the grounds to insurrection, rebellion, and invasion. None of these grounds are existent,’’ it said in a statement. “We call on the citizenry to be vigilant for the defense of their civil liberties.’’
That's a call that needs to go out everywhere.
For several days, hundreds of security forces have surrounded the sprawling Ampatuan compounds in Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital. Troops raided a warehouse owned by the patriarch yesterday and recovered armored and military and police vehicles, M-16 assault rifles, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, said Colonel Leo Ferrer, a local army commander. Security forces had earlier found mortar shells, light machine guns, assault rifles, and bazookas buried near the patriarch’s mansion, some of it marked as belonging to the police or military.
Yeah, because THEY GAVE IT TO THEM!!!!
--more--"
And no matter what the cause, I despair when I see things like this:
Family members yesterday mourned journalist Daniel Tiamzon, among the 57 killed in the Nov. 23 massacre. (Aaron Favila/ Associated Press)
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? -- Mahatma Gandhi
Truer words have never been spoken.
And when it is lying, deceitful governments on both sides?
"Philippine troops find weapons cache" by Associated Press | December 7, 2009
SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines - Philippine troops arrested 62 people and discovered another major weapons cache yesterday after martial law was imposed in a southern province following the country’s worst political massacre.
Thousands of troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, have taken control of Maguindanao Province in a government crackdown on the powerful Ampatuan clan, accused in the Nov. 23 killing of 57 people traveling in a convoy of a political rival. The clan has denied involvement....
The government says it feared the Ampatuans, who have ruled unopposed with an iron fist over predominantly Muslim Maguindanao for years, were fomenting rebellion in response to the crackdown on them since the massacre....
Isn't that the most backwards thing you ever read? They are fomenting rebellion in a response to a crackdown as a result of a massacre in which they had no motive or benefit. No doubt the Muslim and War on Terror angles have a lot to do with this as well as internal Philippines politics.
High-powered firearms and crates of ammunition were dug up yesterday at a farm believed owned by the Ampatuans near the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak. Army troops and police were pursuing about 4,000 armed followers of the Ampatuans, some reportedly massing in eight Maguindanao towns.
Yeah, where did all this weaponry come from, huh?
--more--"
And wouldn't there be more gun battles?
Or is that just being censored by my *ewspaper?
MANILA - Police named 100 government militiamen as additional suspects in the Philippines’ worst political massacre yesterday as prosecutors filed rebellion charges against a powerful clan accused of ordering the brutal attack on a rival’s campaign convoy.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s top Cabinet officials appeared before lawmakers to defend her proclamation of martial law in southern Maguindanao Province, where 57 people were killed, some left sprawled on the ground and others buried in mass graves. Critics called the martial law declaration a dangerous precedent, but Cabinet members said it was needed to stave off a rebellion by the Ampatuan family, the main suspects in the Nov. 23 killings, and their thousands-strong private armies ready to fight the government.
Something about this doesn't pass the smell test, starting with the government militias!
The Ampatuan clan gained notoriety for intimidating political opponents and protecting their turf, which until the massacre made action against them impossible.
And CUI BONO? If they did do this, IT BACKFIRED!!
All over a potential election they could have rigged?
The head of the Philippines’ independent Commission on Human Rights, Leila de Lima, said her office had received a letter from anonymous citizens blaming the Ampatuans for at least 200 other killings in the area in the past decade. De Lima cautioned that the allegations had not been validated and did not provide details but said she would investigate. She said her office had asked the elder Ampatuan to comment on the allegations, but he never responded.
Witnesses in custody have identified Andal Ampatuan Jr., a scion of the clan, as leader of a group of government militiamen who attacked a rival’s convoy in Ampatuan township, said national police chief Jesus Verzosa. The dead included 30 journalists and their staff.
According to the witnesses, Ampatuan shot some of the victims. The bodies bore bullet wounds in the mouth and chest fired from close range, Verzosa said. Police said the bodies of some of the 21 female victims were mutilated, including their sexual organs. Authorities earlier had said at least five women might have been raped.
Hey, maybe it did all happen; however, having been a long time newspaper reader and realizing the lengths they will go to pushing propaganda, this has the feeling of shrilly demonizing an enemy. It's a shame I no longer trust lying newspapers or self-serving governments anymore.
Among the 161 murder suspects are about 100 newly identified militiamen, only two of them in custody - Esmael Kanapa and Takpan Dilon of the Civilian Volunteer Organization, a police auxiliary force, police officials said yesterday. Government-sponsored militias have become a fixture in many Philippine provinces plagued by Muslim and communist rebellions and by bandits.
It seems like with each paragraph the cover story is more exposed, doesn't it?
Over the years, the over-stretched military and police have been arming civilian volunteers as a backup force. In areas like Maguindanao, some have become de facto private armies on the payroll of local political warlords. The remainder of the newly named murder suspects are members of the Ampatuan clan or are police, army, and local officials working for the Ampatuans. About 30 have been arrested. Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor and the only one charged with multiple murder so far, turned himself in three days after the killings and denied involvement. His father - family patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. - four brothers, and 19 others who were arrested on rebellion charges after Arroyo signed martial law Friday were indicted separately....
Dare I say patsies? If they did do this it was a total miscalculation and would defy a people able to hold power for so long.
Arroyo’s declaration of martial law - the first use of military rule in the Philippines since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed it nationwide more than 30 years ago - has raised concerns that it was an overreaction made on shaky legal grounds.
Yeah, the WHOLE CUI BONO MARTIAL LAW STINKS!!!
Congressmen and senators adjourned a vote on martial law until today. Despite heated debate, Arroyo’s allies dominate the lower house and were expected to endorse it. Prosecutors filed the rebellion charges yesterday in Cotabato city, the regional trial court closest to the massacre site, but said they would seek a transfer to Manila. Some congressmen and legal specialists worried that charging them with rebellion might muddle the murder charges because rebellion is a political offense, not criminal.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and top police and military commanders said the danger was real - security forces have recovered combat vehicles, police cars, scores of weapons, and about half a million ammunition rounds in and near properties of the clan.
Yeah, THANKS for ARMING THEM!
A Justice Department statement yesterday cited witnesses and investigators as saying the elder Ampatuan Sr. had ordered his private armies to “fight the government to death’’ if members of his clan and other supporters were arrested. Heavily armed loyalists - most of them militiamen - fled to mountain villages to hide, ready to attack in case the Ampatuans were rounded up, the statement added.
That's the danger? And I haven't heard of any fighting yet.
Arroyo’s martial law order allowed government forces to arrest suspects without waiting for court warrants and to move against some 2,400 armed Ampatuan loyalists.
And CUI BONO again?
--more--"
So what is needed now?
A DIVERSION!!!!
"75 taken hostage in Philippine village; Episode unrelated to Nov. massacre, authorities say" by Al Jacinto and John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times | December 11, 2009
I'm wondering how it could not be related, especially if the MSM is covering it, but....
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Gunmen raided a remote Philippine village before dawn yesterday and abducted at least 75 people in a restive southern province, an army spokesman said.
Within hours the assailants freed 18 captives, including 17 children, amid negotiations with government officials, authorities said. The hostage-taking was the second recent mass abduction in the Philippines. Last month, 57 people, including 30 journalists, traveling in an election convoy were taken and then massacred in the southern province of Maguindanao. The killings, believed to involve battling warlords, led to the imposition of martial law in the province.
Yeah, WHAT ABOUT THAT OTHER GUY?! You know, the victim!
Heard precious little from him in these stories!
Authorities say the two hostage-taking episodes are not related.
When governments flat-out lie to your face, what are we to think?
Yesterday, police and army forces converged on the town of Prosperidad, in the southern province of Agusan del Sur, after reports of attackers swarming the village, said Major Michelle Anayron, a spokesman for the Fourth Infantry Division. At least 15 armed mountain tribesmen stormed the village and rounded up two forest rangers, teachers, and parents during the 6 a.m. attack, authorities said.
I didn't know 15 was a swarm, but.... and those are "reports," huh?
If only I could believe my MSM.
Police said the attackers initially abducted 125 people, but 50 hostages escaped. The gunmen, whom authorities had reportedly chased from a nearby village the previous day, immediately took the remaining hostages to a forested area.
Pffffft!
After the children were released, the kidnappers brought the remaining hostages to the village of San Martin, said Police Chief Inspector Apollo Abao. The negotiations were continuing, he added. The gunmen “were asking for blankets and food and water for the hostages,’’ he said.
The assailants, described as bandits responsible for several robberies and killings in the area, reportedly used hostages as human shields as they made their escape.
When the agenda-pushing, Muslim-hating, enemy-creating Zionist MSM starts tossing that charge around, well....
Authorities said the abductions may have been a response to police attempts to arrest the leader of the gang, Ondo Perez, who has a string of arrest warrants and is connected to the massacre of a farming family. Late in the day, the kidnappers demanded that the government drop all criminal charges against Perez and his group in exchange for the release of the hostages, the police and the military said. “These demands are impossible,’’ said Anayron. “The law of the land must be followed. It is up to the government to negotiate for the release of the hostages.’’
In October, tribesmen also seized seven government forest rangers in Agusan del Norte Province and demanded that the government return their ancestral lands and cancel all forest agreements with commercial loggers in areas inhabited by indigenous tribes, authorities said. The victims, employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, were freed in the town of Sibagat in Agusan del Sur Province after the government canceled several forestry agreements with logging companies. Both provinces are known areas for illegal loggers and a stronghold of New People’s Army rebels.
Well, what do you know? Another indigenous group not in favor with the agenda-pushing interests of the paper, thus the description "bandits."
--more--"
Of course, everyone loves to be exploited by environmentally-raping industry and government, right?
Anyway, back to the massacre:
MANILA - The Philippine president lifted martial law late yesterday in a southern province where 57 people were massacred in the country’s worst political violence, but the area will remain under a state of emergency as authorities investigate a powerful clan accused in the carnage.
The opposition said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made the move to preempt possible censure by the Supreme Court.... The declaration of martial law was the first since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed it nationwide more than 30 years ago and ruled by decree until he was toppled in 1986.
Arroyo took the step so that security forces would have more power to move against the Ampatuan clan blamed for the Nov. 23 killings of members of a rival clan and 30 journalists. The clan is accused of fomenting a rebellion to prevent authorities from arresting members of the family. The Ampatuans have ruled Maguindanao for years and are allies of Arroyo, but the ruling party expelled them days after the killings.
The updated web piece cut this next section:
The Ampatuans have denied involvement in the massacre. Elsewhere, authorities sought the help of a tribal chieftan to persuade government-armed former militiamen to release 47 hostages, even as police prepared a rescue operation.
Oh, no, GOVERNMENT-ARMED GUNMEN AGAIN!!!!
The massacre and the abduction have underscored the lawlessness in a volatile region plagued by bandits, Mulsim and communist insurgents, and private armies.
I just got that old, agenda-pushing MSM feeling, folks!! It is as if an EXCUSE WAS NEEDED for the government to go in, and BANG -- one is provided!
And CUI BONO, huh?
They added this in its place:
In volatile southern Philippines last night, about 30 suspected Islamic militants stormed a prison, freeing 31 inmates and sparking a gun battle in which a guard and one attacker died, officials said. Al Rasheed Sakalahul, vice governor of Basilan island, said the gunmen destroyed a concrete wall of the prison in Isabela city to free detained Muslim guerrillas believed to belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Several other inmates also escaped.
Gee whiz, bandits, Muslim sects, militants!
Next thing you know the Philippines will have U.S. troops on the ground.
Related: CIA Assassination Teams Based in Philippines
Oh, they ALREADY DO, huh?
Now, about those gunmen!
--more--"
Oh, so an INVESTIGATION is due, huh?
Time for MORE DIVERSION!
MANILA - Tribal gunmen freed 47 hostages in the southern Philippines yesterday, but the region continued to be wracked by violence as suspected Islamic radicals staged a deadly jail break in which dozens of inmates were freed, including comrades accused of beheading marines.
All the hallmarks of demonization.
Hey, I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just saying I no longer trust my AmeriKan MSM accounts.
Btw, how are those government operations with the tanks and planes going?
The three-day hostage standoff in Agusan del Sur province and the jail raid on the island of Basilan come after a massacre last month in a nearby frontier region in which 57 people were killed. The crises underscore the complexity of conflicts raging in the country’s south, an impoverished region awash with firearms, outlaws, political warlords, and Muslim insurgents.
Why am I getting an unholy wafting of the agenda, readers?
The remaining 47 hostages freed were among the more than 75 people, including children, who were snatched Thursday by gunmen trying to evade police serving warrants for a string of charges, including murder. The kidnappers’ jungle encampment had been surrounded by troops and snipers. Vice Governor Santiago Cane of Agusan del Sur said the gunmen - former government-armed militiamen - gave up their hostages and weapons after negotiators pledged not to have them arrested on the past charges or the abductions.
Oh, now they are "former?" Either way, THAT is where they got their WEAPONS!!!
Several women and children were freed immediately after the kidnapping, leaving those still held crammed in small bamboo huts that leaked. The gunmen still have to be investigated before they will be turned over to a Roman Catholic bishop while their murder cases are reviewed by a tribal court, a police spokesman said.
I guess that's why I never heard back on it, readers.
--more--"
And what do you know, then the story disappears again!
Btw, did it ever stop raining out there, MSM?
