#NEWS Philippines to mourn massacre victims

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Agence France-Presse

Posted at 11/23/2010 9:26 AM | Updated as of 11/23/2010 9:26 AM

SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines — The Philippines was on Tuesday set to mourn the one-year anniversary of the country's worst massacre amid fears of attacks by gunmen loyal to the clan blamed for the murders.

Four military battalions were deployed to protect families and supporters of the victims who planned to make an emotional journey atop a remote grassy hill in the southern province of Maguindanao where the carnage took place last year.

Security fears were punctuated when a motorcycle bomb wounded two people in the provincial capital, Shariff Aguak, on Sunday just as preparations were in full swing for the commemoration ceremonies.

"There are four battalions already deployed in Maguindanao. The situation is manageable, but the military is not taking any chances," Lieutenant Colonel Benjie Hao, one of the ground commanders in the south, told Agence France-Presse.

The relatives are expected to be joined by local officials as well as religious leaders who will lead an ecumenical prayer in front of a memorial marker with all the names of the victims at midday (0400 GMT), organizers said.

The powerful Ampatuan clan, which had governed Maguindanao province since 2001, allegedly orchestrated the murders of 57 people in a futile bid to stop a member of a rival Muslim clan from running as governor.

Those killed were relatives and supporters of the rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, who were to have filed his election nomination papers, as well as 32 local journalists who had travelled in the convoy to report on the news.

Their bodies were later found in a shallow pit, and witnesses who have so far testified in the ongoing trial in Manila said the victims were gunned down mostly by Andal Ampatuan Jnr, the clan patriarch's son and namesake.

President Benigno Aquino declared Tuesday a "day of remembrance" and ordered government employees to wear black to symbolize unity with the victims' relatives.

"I call on the Filipino people to solemnly bear the departed in their thoughts, and for all the citizens from all walks of life to commit, in solidarity, to the quest for justice to the victims," Aquino said.

But a year after the massacre, rights monitors say the Ampatuan family remains powerful, with many members of their private army remaining on the loose.

While Ampatuan Snr and Jnr and four other clan leaders have been jailed, more than 100 of the 196 people accused in the crime are at large, and allegedly can receive calls from their leaders to stage attacks.

Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, the clan rival whose political challenge to the Ampatuans allegedly was the reason for the massacre, said those killed -- including his wife and two sisters -- should be remembered as martyrs.

"This is the darkest moment in Maguindanao history and they should be considered as martyrs. Their ultimate sacrifice led to a new beginning," Mangudadatu said.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International said Aquino, who took office on June 30 this year, must make true on his promise to abolish private armies still operating with impunity in the country's south and ensure justice in the case.

"The government has to show that the Philippines has the ability and will to deal fairly but resolutely with a massacre that constituted the worst ever attack on journalists anywhere in the world," said Amnesty's Asia director Sam Zafiri on the eve of the one-year anniversary.

"How the Philippine government handles this case will demonstrate how serious President Aquino is about reining in private armies and curbing human rights violations," Zafiri said.

The Ampatuans had previously ruled Maguindanao with the support of then president Gloria Arroyo, who supplied the family's private militia of up to 5,000 men so they could be used as a proxy force against Muslim rebels.

Rights groups have alleged she also ignored the Ampatuans' reputation for violence because they helped deliver votes in national elections -- charges she denies.

However politicians in the restive southern Philippines and elsewhere across the country are infamous for having similar -- if not so violent -- private armies.

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