Maguindanao Massacre
Last Tuesday 46 bullet-ridden bodies were pulled out from shallow graves from the massacre site in Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan town. Today 11 more bodies were recovered in six in a large pit buried alongside three vehicles and five in a mass grave ‚Äî bringing the death toll in Monday’s attack on an election caravan to 57, including 18 journalists.
This is the most horrible election-related violence that ever happens in the Philippines. “Some bodies were strewn on the ground. Most were recovered from under lumps of earth which were stained with blood. They were piled on top of each other. It looked as if they were buried hurriedly.” said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, the regional police commander.
Supporters of Buluan Vice Mayor Toto Mangudadatu and Mangudadatu Vice Mayor Eden Mangudadatu and their companions were on their way to the Comelec office to file COCs at around 10:30 a.m. when they were blocked at a checkpoint manned by some 100 Maguindanao police personnel and armed civilian volunteers allegedly led by Datu Unsay town mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr.
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Efren G. Peñaflorida, Jr. is an ordinary man with extraordinary heart. Like thousands of other Filipinos Efren grew up in poverty-stricken part of the country. Experienced life struggles at early age. He had lived near the city dump site in Cavite City and work hard to help his parents (his father is a tricycle driver and his mother is a vendor) make ends meet. At young age Efren realize that it was education which will be instrumental to alleviate their destitute status.