LOS ANGELES – Several Filipino-American organizations have expressed outrage and disgust over the brutal massacre that has claimed the lives of 57 people in Maguindanao, Philippines in what is deemed an election-linked, political killing.
Among those who were killed include women, lawyers and journalists who were accompanying the wife of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, a political rival challenging the reigning Ampatuan clan in the upcoming national elections by filing for the gubernatorial candidacy.
Esmael’s wife, Genalin Mangudadatu, was going to file for her husband’s candidacy before the gruesome massacre happened.
"AF3IRM/GabNet condemns the continuing tolerance of and for petty feudal clan dynasties which are antithetical to the country’s claims of democracy," in a statement written by Jollene Levid, Secretary-General of GABNet, a Filipino Women’s organization. "Feudal clan dynasties make a mockery of Philippines’ self-characterization as a republic and reveal its barbaric political structure as nothing more than fiefdoms controlled through violence and suppression."
"While we mourn and sympathize with the families of the victims of this dastardly act, we give special concern to members of the press who were killed. There is no word strong enough to describe this barbarism," said the National Press Club Benny Antiporda.
"The harshest of punishment should be leveled against the suspects, regardless of their political and personal standing," he added.
Levid said Gabnet is demanding justice especially for the women who lay victim to the heinous crime. She hopes that those responsible will be prosecuted.
"Let us not tolerate once again the historic pattern of political killings in the Philippines where masterminds get away scot-free while the hirelings are thrown under the bus by their overlords," she said. n
( Published November 28, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A7 )
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