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Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern
provinces and a city under emergency rule after 24 people were
killed in the worst-ever election related violence in the
country.
"There is an urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of
several other incidents of lawless violence," Cerge Remonde, the
president's press secretary, told reporters.
The provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City
will be under an indefinite state of emergency, which gives the
military and police wide powers of arrest and detention.
The orders were issued as troops, using shovels and bare hands, dug
up hastily covered graves on a grassy hillside in Maguindanao to
recover the victims of the massacre on Monday.
A photographer at the scene saw 22 bodies - 14 women and eight men
- with bullet and hack wounds.
Some of the dead men had their hands tied behind their back and one of the women was pregnant.
Eight of those found dead were local journalists.
They were part of a group of 40 people abducted by gunmen when on
their way to file a candidate's nomination to contest the
governorship in elections next May.
The army said it had found 24 bodies and was searching for the
others.
"We are expecting that more bodies will be recovered today,"
Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner, military spokesman, told
reporters in Manila.
The election process for the May 2010 national polls began last
week with the filing of candidacies for more than 17,800 national
and local positions.
Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by violence,
especially in the south, where security forces are battling
communist rebels, Islamic radicals and clan rivalries.
Arroyo ordered extra troops to the region and sacked the
Maguindanao provincial police chief.
Clan rivalry
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said investigations would be
completed within a couple of days and arrests made.
"There are no sacred cows," he told television.
"It is going to be a direct investigation of the crimes
committed. We have some information about specific names, not just
those who ordered this thing, but also those who committed
it."
Military officials said the dead included Genalyn
Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, who was on the way to file the nomination of
Esmael, her husband, to contest the governorship of Maguindanao
against Datu Andal Ampatuan, the head of a powerful local
family.
The town near where the massacre took place bears the name of the
family.
Ampatuan has been elected governor of Maguindanao three times
previously, always unopposed, although he resigned from the post
earlier this year, apparently to circumvent term limits on elected
officials.
One of his sons is the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao, an area which covers six provinces, and the family is
politically allied to Arroyo.
None of the Ampatuans made any comment to local or foreign
media.
Esmael Mangudadatu, Genalyn's husband, told radio that four people
had escaped the massacre and were under his care.
"They will come out at the right time, they are safe with us,"
he said.
The southern Philippines is riven by clan rivalries, including one
between the Mangudadatus and the Ampatuans.
Many politicians and elected officials in the region maintain well-equipped private armies.
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