MANILA, Philippines—The massacre of more than 40 people in Maguindanao province has exposed a brutal culture of guns, greed and money that has poisoned the nation’s political system for decades, experts said on Tuesday.

The murders on Monday are feared to be only the first of many killings ahead of next year’s national elections, when posts from village chiefs to president will be up for grabs.

“This explosion of violence arises whenever there is an election,” said Samira Gutoc, one of the convenors of the Young Moro Professionals, a group helping the government in peace talks with Moro rebels in Mindanao.

Indeed, dozens of people are killed each election season in the country.

Local political warlords have for generations competed for political power and the accompanying business riches that government posts offer.

These clans are well-known to control private armies, who carry out assassinations and counterattacks against rivals.

The proliferation of over 1.1 million unlicensed firearms, most of them in the hands of rebel groups or paramilitaries, contribute to the general lawlessness in many remote areas, according to police.

Volatile region

In one high-profile murder in the run-up to congressional elections in 2007, a member of Congress from a northern province was gunned down by an assassin allegedly hired by his rival on the steps of a Roman Catholic Church while attending a wedding.

All in all, 121 people were killed in that campaign season, according to national police statistics, slightly lower than the 148 who died in the 2004 national elections.

But while the problem plagues other areas of the country, experts say Maguindanao and other parts of Mindanao—where a Muslim insurgency has waged for decades—are particularly volatile.

“Politics in Mindanao is about ownership of power. Public office is perceived as a personal, clannish thing—a birth right, and they would spill blood for it,” Gutoc said.

More bloodshed feared

Gutoc said she expected more violence in the fallout of Monday’s massacre, with relatives of those killed expected to carry out vendetta killings, called rido in the local dialect.

“Retaliation is a natural course of events,” she said.

Abhoud Syed Linga, executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies who has done research on clan fighting, said the phenomenon further complicated the Moro insurgency that has claimed more than 150,000 lives since the 1970s.

“Some rido are sustained for generations,” Linga said. “The retaliation and counter-retaliation involve the whole family or clan.”

Lack of justice

The vendetta killings, Linga said, are the “consequence of the absence of justice” for a perceived wrong.

“Among Muslims the value of justice is strong to the extent that it becomes a duty for family members to work for justice and reject oppression,” he said.

Amnesty International said the killings underlined the danger facing civilians across the entire country in the lead-up to next year’s elections.

‘Don’t blame us’

The military said the culture of violence and clannish politics were to be blamed for Monday’s violence.

“This is more of a cultural thing. It’s the people and the local leaders who should resolve this problem,” said the Armed Forces spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr.

“This incident is a result of rido, a war between warring families in Mindanao,” Brawner said, downplaying insinuations that the carnage was a result of a failure in intelligence work of military and police units in the area.

Instead of blaming government forces, Brawner said local officials should be asked to explain the presence of private armed groups carrying unlicensed firearms in Mindanao.

“The local executives are the authorities there. They’re the representatives of the government. They should at least show some degree of responsibility as officers of the law,” he said. Reports from Agence France-Presse and Marlon Ramos