Philippines provinces put under emergency rule

Karen Percy, South East Asia correspondent

Last Updated: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:07:00 +1100

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule after at least 35 people were killed in election related violence.

The provinces on Mindanao will be under an indefinite state of emergency, which gives the military and police wide powers of arrest and detention.

It comes after the abduction and killings of a group of politicians, lawyers and journalists in the southern Philippines province of Maguindanao.

The people who died were linked to the prominent Mangudadatu political family.

Their convoy was ambushed just a few kilometres away from the elections office, where they were planning to lodge the candidacy papers for Esmael Mangudadatu, who wanted to contest the provincial governor's position in next year's elections.

It's understood the family was warned of a possible attack late last week.

The attackers are said to be linked to the powerful Amputuan family which has ties to the administration of the President, Gloria Arroyo.

'Slow response'

Nonoy Espina from the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines says the response to the massacre has been slow.

"We don't see anything much happening towards getting the perpetrators and... those responsible for this carnage," he said.

"The army has identified a main suspect as a town mayor in fact, who belongs to one of the prominent political families, who happen also to be very, very close to our administration here."

Mr Espina visited the region last week and says he was aware of the possibility of an attack.

"We were actually informed that something was going down, that the Ampatuans might try to stop the other family from filing their candidacy," he said.

"And they were inviting media, apparently believing that the process of media would somehow be a deterrent to anything bad happening."

"In their culture respect for women comes very strong, so probably that was part of the rationale why the mayor, the candidate himself, didn't go but sent his wife."

Mr Espina says corrupt officials almost certainly played a part in the massacre.

"It's almost a given that a lot of corruption would have been involved," he said.

"Probably some people were paid off or turned a blind eye. The reports we were having is that the police and local militia were actually involved in the massacre."

"We're still getting more details as time goes on, so we can't exactly say yet. But the fact is it could have been impossible for them not to know."

The police chief of the region has been stood down, but there is concern that the investigation will not go as high as it needs to in a country where few political crimes are ever prosecuted.