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| Southeast Asia |
| Arrests in Philippine Province Under Martial Law |
| 2009-12-06 |
| The military arrested dozens of people and seized caches of weapons after martial law was imposed over the weekend on a southern Philippine province where 57 people had been killed in a massacre, officials said Sunday. The military so far has detained a total of 47 people, most of them this weekend, after taking control over Maguindanao Province, in an attempt to quell a rebellion by supporters of a powerful political family accused of carrying out a massacre two weeks ago, said Maj. Randolph Cabangbang of the army. Among those arrested over the weekend were six members of the Ampatuan family, including the patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his son, Zaldy, the governor of the five-province Muslim autonomous region that includes Maguindanao. A seventh member, Andal Ampatuan Jr., had been arrested before the crackdown. The military said Sunday that it had raided a property owned by the family patriarch and found 40 firearms, including Armalite assault rifles and ammunition. It was the latest in a series of raids. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cited a breakdown of law and order in Maguindanao. Her announcement of martial law, made public on Saturday, drew some criticism. The Ampatuans were once among Mrs. Arroyo’s closest political allies in the south, but they are now accused of staging the massacre, as well as a rebellion against her government. “Heavily armed groups in the province of Maguindanao have established positions to resist government troops thereby depriving the Executive of its powers and prerogatives to enforce the laws of the land to maintain public order and safety,” read a portion of Proclamation No. 1959, signed by Mrs. Arroyo late Friday. Law and order, it said, “has deteriorated to the extent that local judicial system and other government mechanisms in the province are not functioning; thus, endangering public safety.” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the imposition of martial law, which came with the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and allows the military to arrest suspects without a warrant, was necessary because of the rebellion being waged by the Ampatuan family. She also asserted that trying the Ampatuans in court would prove difficult because, according to her, no judge would hear the case, and because prosecutors had begged off from handling the case for fear of the Ampatuans. The family ruled the province for much of this decade and are known for their vast private army. Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, operations chief of the armed forces of the Philippines, said at a briefing at the presidential palace that supporters of the Ampatuans had been massing in several areas around the province and that violence was imminent. Ms. Devanadera said that Mrs. Arroyo was supposed to make a report to Congress about her decision to impose military rule in Maguindanao, as mandated by the Constitution. “All these actions that the government is doing are in accordance with the Constitution,” Ms. Devanadera said Sunday. “The declaration of martial law is not a taste test for doing the same in other parts of the country,” referring to the criticism that the move had generated. While some Filipinos welcomed the declaration, some denounced it, calling it unnecessary. “It appears to me as an overreaction,” a former president, Fidel Ramos, told ABS-CBN television, a local station. Mr. Ramos, speaking from Sydney, is a former general who implemented martial law after it was imposed by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. The former ruler’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said Saturday that Filipinos “should watch closely how martial law will be used” by the government. The criticism of Mrs. Arroyo centers on the two constitutional requirements for martial law: an invasion by a foreign power or a rebellion. Critics said neither of these two were present. Before the declaration Friday night, government had not mentioned a rebellion. But Saturday, the justice secretary said that cases against the Ampatuans would not be classified as such. “They are criminals, not rebels,” said Luz Ilagan, a congresswoman who spoke at a protest in Manila on Saturday, referring to the Ampatuans. Marvic Leonen, dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, said Mrs. Arroyo “should also observe an extraordinary level of transparency and accountability with this declaration.” Mrs. Arroyo has been under pressure to act on the massacre of 57 people, including journalists and media workers, supporters and relatives of a rival political leader, as well as motorists who just happened to have been at the checkpoint where the convoy of victims was stopped. They were brought to a nearby hilltop where they were shot, hacked and buried using a backhoe owned by the provincial government of Maguindanao, where Andal Ampatuan Sr. is governor. Police commandos rescued a kidnapped Indian businessman on Sunday and killed six people suspected of being his abductors in two gun battles, The Associated Press reported, quoting officials. Heavily armed police officers, backed by military intelligence agents, raided the kidnappers’ hide-out in Calumpit township in Bulacan Province, north of Manila, after midnight, provoking a brief clash in which three abductors were killed, said Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez of the police. They rescued Avtar Singh, 52, who was tied and blindfolded in a room but unharmed. Three other kidnappers left the gang’s hide-out two hours before the raid and were killed in a shoot-out with the police, the authorities said. Mr. Singh, who has a money-lending company, was kidnapped Friday in the Manila suburb of Quezon City by four gunmen, who took his van. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |