EDITORIAL

Making monsters
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11/19/2010

It became clear in the traumatic aftermath of the gruesome massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, a year ago: the rule of violence that was associated with the Ampatuan family in the province could not have been possible without sins of omission or commission of the Arroyo administration. A report prepared by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and issued this week is a useful and sobering reminder of that fundamental but often-fudged fact.


The report is based on more than 80 interviews, the group’s official news release said, “including with people having insider knowledge of the Ampatuan family security structure, victims of abuses and their family members, and witnesses to crimes.”

The report is careful about its marshalling of the facts, and keenly aware that the situation in Maguindanao, like the rule of violence that prevailed in it, was not limited to the province.

The group said: “The Ampatuans’ rise and expansion was aided by the President at the time of the massacre, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who relied on the family for crucial votes and for support in the protracted armed conflict with Moro armed groups in Mindanao. Under the Arroyo administration, militia forces, which have a long history of human rights violations in the Philippines, were greatly strengthened because of the increased sale of military weaponry to local officials and other support. The administration also failed to address impunity for serious rights abuses: in 2002 Arroyo was directly notified of 33 killings allegedly perpetrated by the Ampatuans, but she took no apparent action.”

To this damning indictment, the former president’s spokesperson, who had sassy and insensitive comments to make about the Aquino administration after the Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident at the Luneta, could only say, “No comment.”

We do not wish to dilute the liability of the people who masterminded the massacre (and it is clear from testimony from the ongoing trial that some real planning was involved) or of the people who manned the checkpoints or abducted the victims or pulled the triggers. They must all be brought to justice—a truly daunting task, considering that only 19 of the suspects are facing trial, and 115 suspects remain at large.

But the monsters who planned the savage reception for the Mangudadatu family and their bodyguard of journalists; the monsters who abducted the victims on the highway, including even those who merely happened to be passing through; the monsters who slaked their bloodlust in a killing spree, claiming 57 victims; the monsters who tried to erase evidence of their savagery by dumping bodies and even cars using a backhoe—these monsters would not have existed at all without the active help or the malign neglect of the Arroyo administration.

It was the Moro insurgency that recommended the Ampatuans to the attention of the Arroyo administration. But it was the Ampatuans’ control of the electoral process in Maguindanao that endeared them to the most powerful ruling family of all, the Arroyos. In the 2004 presidential election, the accommodating “voters” in the province helped ensure Arroyo’s winning margin. In the 2007 senatorial election, despite a national backlash against Arroyo and her candidates, the “voters” of Maguindanao once again trumped logic and arithmetic by allowing Arroyo’s candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri to steal into the Senate.

Given these services, both of which could be conceptualized and understood and sold in the light of “national security,” especially as understood by the family in Malacañang, the Ampatuans were given free rein in the province. The facts were clear a year ago, but the Human Rights Watch report confirms what we know and adds new information; it “details how the military and police provided the Ampatuan family with manpower, modern military weapons, and protection from prosecution. Most members of their private army were also members of the police, military, or state-sanctioned paramilitary forces, including Civilian Volunteer Organizations and the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Units.”

“Families like the Ampatuans have used officially sanctioned paramilitaries as private armies to spread terror and maintain power,” James Ross of Human Rights Watch said. Why was that official sanction granted by the Arroyo administration? Because it was in its own best interest.

The really chilling thing is, the Ampatuans were not alone.