The Philippines will hold a national election next year. On the morning of 23rd, Toto Mangudadatu, deputy mayor of Blaine, Maguindanao Province, sent his wife, two sisters, two female lawyers and dozens of journalists (including female journalists) to register for the governor's election.
Unexpectedly, on the way, they were intercepted and kidnapped by a private armed force of about 100 people. Almost all of them were tortured to death and their bodies were hastily buried in nearby barren hills.
Witnesses saw that Andal Ampatuan Jr, the mayor of Dato 'Ansai, who was also interested in running for the governor, suddenly appeared in this armed force. Ampatuan Jr. is the son of Aandahl Ampatuan, the current governor of Maggio Province, and Ampatuan Sr. has been re-elected for three terms.
Anpaduan family and Mangudadatu family are both traditional local political forces in Mindanao. When the dictator Kyle 1986 fell, the old Ann Padoin family and the old Mangudadatu family were appointed as acting mayors of the two cities by the successor President Corazon Aquino, and they had a good relationship.
On his deathbed, the old man Gudadatu entrusted his children to the care of old Ampadouan. However, the power struggle turned the two families against each other.
In the Philippines, when there is an armed conflict between Muslim families, according to unwritten rules, attacks can hurt women, but they cannot be targeted at women. Therefore, most Muslim women can handle things that men can't handle, such as going deep into the other camp to negotiate or collecting bodies for the dead in the conflict. In the recent massacre, the female victims were obviously directly attacked.
Mangudadatu lost his wife and two sisters in this incident. He said that he received death threats immediately after he announced his candidacy for governor. This is why he asked all the female members of his family to register for the election on his behalf, but it turned out to be a wrong decision.
The Ampatuan family controls Maggio Province and Mindanao Muslim Autonomous Region, and nearly half of the local officials and public opinion representatives in these two places are members of their family. However, some members of the Mangudadatu family have served as governors and parliamentarians in the neighboring Sultan Kudalat, and some family members have held important positions in Muslim autonomous regions.
Although there is not enough direct evidence that the Ampatuan family is responsible for this incident, and although Mangudadatu claims that it will be solved by legal means, observers are worried that a fierce armed conflict may be brewing, especially since both families have more than hundreds of private armed forces.