Philippines Massacre

In the southern Philippines, the province of Maguindanao is in virtual lockdown after a state of emergency was declared after the country’s worst political massacre. In the country politics and journalism are the most dangerous of professions. Hundreds of additional troops have been called in after the massacre shocked the country.
Official in the Philippines declared 46 people dead including 12 journalists. Local media reports that only 4 people out of 40 people kidnapped yesterday survived.
Journalist and other people were killed and mutilated and some people were thrown into the shallow graves.
Nonoy Espina from the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said

“We don’t see anything much happening towards getting the perpetrators and… those responsible for this carnage. The army has identified a main suspect as a town mayor in fact, who belongs to one of the prominent political families, who happen also to be very, very close to our administration here.”

Nonoy Espina visited there last week and he was aware of possibility of attack. International Press Institute director David Dadge

“This is a senseless slaughter… It is the work of journalists to report on political campaigns on behalf of the public. By acting in this way these individuals have shown that they not only stand outside of democracy but also outside of humanity.”

The Philippine military suspects the politically powerful Ampatuan family is behind the attack and has deployed troops to search for the provincial governor. Rowena Paraan is director of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that it is not good for the journalists and the killings are worst in the country’s history. She also said it is direct attack on the two very fundamental foundations of democracy, election and press freedom. Paraan added that despite the Philippine president’s declaration, she is not very confident that the government will prosecute those responsible for the killings.