“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the barbaric killing of innocent civilians, including women, journalists and lawyers, who were preparing to participate in the electoral process in the Philippines,” she said in a statement emailed to MindaNews.

About a hundred armed men reportedly held and later killed two women lawyers, over two dozen journalists and members of the Mangudadatu family who were on their way to file the certificate of candidacy for Maguindanao governor of Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu at the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. 

The suspects, who were tagged as hired guns of the Ampatuan family, initially stopped the convoy in Barangay Saniag around 9 a.m. and brought them at gunpoint to the vicinity of barangays Salman and Malating, which is about three kilometers from the national highway.

Police and military search and retrieval teams recovered the bodies of the victims at the massacre site and later from shallow graves at a hilly portion of Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman.

Ferrero-Waldner offered “profound condolences” to the families of all the victims and noted with satisfaction the declaration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “that all will be done to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

"I call for calm in the period leading up to the forthcoming elections scheduled for May 2010. In the face of this atrocity, the rule of law and democracy have to prevail," she added.

A Moro group, meanwhile, called on Muslims to unite and even work with Christians in Mindanao in demanding justice for the Ampatuan massacre victims. 

“As Muslims, we should condemn the bloodbath and we shun the perception that this is merely a traditional rido (clan war). This is senseless killing of power-hungry politicians,” said Amirah Ali Lidasan, spokesperson of Suara Bangsamoro.

She said President Arroyo and the military should also be held liable “for the proliferation of ‘legitimized’ private armies of warlord politicians in Maguindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao” for establishing the civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) in 2006 to help the local government units in their fight against insurgency.

Balay Mindanaw, a group in Cagayan de Oro City, is calling “for an end to warlordism and the immediate dismantling of private armies and other instruments of violence” in Mindanao. 

But still, the group vowed to “continue to work with even greater resolve to help build lasting peace.”

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) described the carnage as “heinous, vicious, savage, ruthless, unspeakable, despicable, barbaric, inhuman, senseless.”

“We place the blame for this massacre not only on those directly involved in the mass
murder of these victims, but also on government for failing in its task to secure the safety
of the people for whom it exists, and for cultivating this culture of impunity among warlords
and their cohorts and agents,” provincial superior Ramon Ma. G. Bernabe said in a statement. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)

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