MANILA, Philippines—Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima Tuesday said the perpetrators of the mass murder in Maguindanao were “not human.”
Saying she had been shaking with rage since Monday night, De Lima let loose a mouthful on the killings, the Ampatuan family, and the national government.
“What kind of animals are these killers?” she told reporters at her office. “We are so shocked and enraged. This is beyond words. It is most despicable. This is the work of someone who is not human. It is a bestial act of the highest order. I have never seen anything like it. It’s brutal ruthlessness all in the name of power. It’s an affront to all forms of civility.”
De Lima recalled that in 2001, she served as Zacarias Candao’s election lawyer in his run for the governor’s post in Maguindanao. The eventual winner was Andal Ampatuan Sr.
In 2007, De Lima returned to Maguindanao where, as the lawyer of then senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, she questioned the results of the vote in the province. Pimentel lost the 12th and last Senate slot to Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Hotspot
“We all know the political atmosphere there. It’s a hotspot. [The Ampatuans] deliver landslide votes or swing votes to mostly administration candidates. We know they fabricated or manufactured votes,” De Lima said.
Because of that, the administration “owes political debts to them,” she said, adding:
“We are aware that the Ampatuans are politically allied with the administration. We are also aware that they delivered landslide votes in previous elections. Because of that, they act like gods in the area. They go around with a feeling they are untouchable, or above the law.”
De Lima called on Malacańang to inform the public “what is being done and the steps taken.”
She wondered aloud where the 100 armed men who had carried out the killings came from.
“This only confirms that [the Ampatuans] maintain a private army. Why is this allowed? I would understand that the local police and military fall within their sphere of influence. But the national government? They know. What have the police and military been doing all this time?”
She also noted reports that the killings were carried out near a military detachment, and that policemen were among the 100 armed men.
High-level probe
In a statement, De Lima said the Philippine National Police and the Palace “must be put to task, not only to respond to the killings, but [also] to deliver expeditious justice.”
“There are several underpinnings of power and influence in Maguindanao politics that must be overcome without any delay, and the governmental response should be decisive,” she said.
She called for a “high-level” investigation. “Definitely not on the local level because I don’t think we can really rely on the local people. They are afraid of the influence,” she said.
De Lima said the CHR had sent two investigators and a forensic expert to aid the regional office staff in the area.
The objective is to make sure there will be no whitewash in the investigation, she said.
De Lima also called on the national government to immediately disarm all private armed groups “to prevent further bloodshed.”
“It is precisely because national authorities continue to be neglectful of power-wielding local officials that we find vast segments of the countryside population cowering in fear of violence and in fear for their lives,” she said.
“The Ampatuans, and several other clans, for that matter, did not amass their cache of arms and assemble massive private armies overnight,” she said.
Ignominy
On the killing of members of the media, De Lima said this would return the Philippines to “ignominy” in the eyes of the world.
“That is what [the Ampatuans] want. They don’t want to be under media scrutiny. They are just being consistent, and they are being tolerated by the national leadership,” De Lima said.
She added that previously, the presence of journalists guaranteed anyone’s safety in Mindanao. “But now, not anymore,” she said.
“I call on the media as well to be on guard and to continue to unearth the human rights crisis brewing in Maguindanao. Only when we are able to bring the true state of violence in Maguindanao, the true character of the power-wielding clans, to national attention, can we unremorsefully reprimand our national government for neglecting their duties to maintain peace in Maguindanao,” De Lima said.
