THEY belonged to the rival Mangudadatu clan, but since they were women accompanied by a media delegation, they believed they were safe, protected by the Koranic preion to spare women.
That’s why they were sent to the Maguindanao capital Shariff Aguak by Buluan Vice Mayor Datu Ismail “Toto” Mangudadatu who intends to run for governor against the son of incumbent Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.
No one could have predicted the ruthlessness that met the group of 40 or so people.
At least 36 people, mostly identified with Toto Mangudadatu and including a dozen media people, were abducted and later killed yesterday by gunmen allegedly led by members of the Ampatuan political clan.
Toto’s wife, Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, was among those killed, Toto himself said.
Knowing that it would be suicidal for him to venture into Ampatuan territory, Toto sent his wife and two sisters, believing that fellow Muslims would not dare harm the women.
For good measure, the women were accompanied by lawyers and media professionals. They were all abducted anyway.
Despite the deaths, Toto said he would not back down “and no one can compel me not to run for governor.”
Toto said his wife called him by mobile phone shortly before she and her entourage were abducted.
“She said ... they were stopped by 100 uniformed armed men ...then her line got cut off,” he said.
The convoy of vans carrying about 40 people was hijacked and army troops later found the bullet-riddled bodies of 13 women and eight men, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton said.
Madaser Mangudadato, Toto’s brother and a congressman in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said some of the victims were beheaded.
According to officials, most of the 36 or so victims were shot and some run over by vehicles.
Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said the abducted victims included Toto’s sisters Bai Farinah and Bai Eden Mangudadatu, the incumbent vice mayor of Mangundadatu town, also in Maguindanao province.
He expects the death toll to reach 43.
Toto said other abducted victims were lawyers Connie Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo, Rasul Daud and Faridah Sabdulah, and some 30 journalists. He said the women were sexually assaulted.
“What they did was heinous. The heads of the victims were bashed and the females stripped from the waist down,” he said in the dialect.
Despite the massacre, Toto said he will continue with his plans for 2010.
Brawner said they were abducted by some 100 men allegedly led by Mayor Datu Unsay Ampatuan and one Police Senior Inspector Dicay of the Shariff Aguak police force.
He said in a local television interview that 21 bodies—13 female and eight male— have so far been recovered from the Maguindanao massacre.
Associated Press and the Agence France Press both reported 21 fatalities.
The victims were abducted at about 10:30 a.m. while on their way to the Maguindanao Comelec office in Shariff Aguak to file a certificate of candidacy (COC) in behalf of Toto Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital, is widely known as Ampatuan turf.
Sources in Cotabato City fault the Comelec for transferring the regional office there this year from Cotabato City where it would have been easier for rivals to file their COCs.
Before the reports of the massacre, Brawner said the leader of the militiamen who carried out the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan’s sons.
Mangudadatu’s brother, Khdadafeh, also said Ampatuan had warned Mangudadatu’s not to register for the elections.
“His son, Andal Ampatuan Jr., is supposed to run for governor and he had already made an earlier announcement that we would be killed if (Toto) filed the candidacy for governor,” Khdadafeh said. (AP)/(AFP)