LCP exec, Iloilo media condemn Maguindanao massacre
League of Cities in the Philippines (LCP) chair Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas joined mounting condemnations nationwide of the Maguindanao massacre killing 24 people including 13 journalists.
Treñas said the massacre did not only affect the family of a political clan but also the media covering the supposed filing of the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu.
The appalling massacre saddened the media community all over the country.
Treñas described the killing as “senseless and inhumane”. “The media are innocent. They are supposed only to cover the event,” Treñas said.
In its website, Reporters Without Borders said never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day.
In Iloilo City, some members of the media wore black shirts to express their sympathy and condolences to the 13 Mindanao-based journalists who were killed.
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)-Iloilo Chapter chair and concurrent National President Nestor Burgos Jr. came up with a statement condemning the massacre.
The bullet-ridden bodies of the victims were pulled out from shallow graves in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao Tuesday. Police could not confirm yet on whether the women were raped before they were killed. Their pants were unzipped.
The 13 journalists who are from General Santos City and South Cotabato were among a group of 40 people abducted by gunmen Monday linked to Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, head of a Muslim clan and part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ruling coalition.
The group was traveling in a convoy to accompany Mangudadatu’s wife as she went to an electoral office to register her husband to run for governor against Ampatuan’s son in next year’s national elections.
Treñas refused to comment on reports linking the Ampatuan’s in the killings. It is unfair to comment unless their participation in the killing is confirmed, he said.
The league also strongly called on the authorities to probe the matter and dig deeper. They should look for perpetrators and bring them into the hands of the law.
The PNP hierarchy ordered the relief of Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay, the deputy provincial police director of Maguindanao after he was supposedly seen with the armed men who abducted and killed the victims.
The senseless murders and political killings must be stopped. The election is only a political exercise and exercise of rights. There is no justification in the use of violence. It should not impose a political vendetta, said Treñas.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Vicente President of Iloilo Islamic Center also condemned the brutal massacre in Maguindanao. He said such acts are not acceptable especially that it involved innocent people like the members of the media.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers Iloilo chapter (NUPL-Iloilo) led by Atty. Joshua Alim also issued a statement condemning the Maguindanao massacre. “NUPL-Iloilo joins the kins, loved ones and concerned Filipinos in their grief and rage on the senseless and brutal massacre of the innocent in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, much so because two of our compañeras, Atty. Connie Brizuela and Atty. Cynthia Oquendo were among the victims,” it said.
