The Family Album of the Maquindanao Massacre

I am on an a Filipino mailing list. The focus of the list is the hometown of The Empress.

I do not pay the list too much attention but from time to time there is an item we look at. I took a look today and found a number of e-mails with the subject: GRABE OI!!!! PHOTOS FROM THE MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE. I interpret "Grabe OI" roughly as "OMG", it isn't but it signifies serious shock.

Now, I have had my hand in death at least animal death. I've shot and gutted birds and I've caught and cleaned fish. However, I ordered my e-mail client to load images. I then scrolled down.

The first and only image I gazed upon was of a person I had to gaze a bit to put the pieces together. Then it came into focus, I was looking at a head caked in mud. The head was butterflied open and an eyeball was apparent and very much out of place. I did not lose my cookies or anything but I quickly got out of that e-mail, put the laptop down, and walked away.

I am conflicted about looking at the rest and further conflicted about saving them or to let them purge out of the folder they are in when the time comes.

One thing my psychology 101 professor talked about was human cognitive development. She noted infants (can not recall what age) work on out of sight, out of mind. Images such as the one above informs me that out of sight out of mind is not just for infants. To bury that poor wretch does not change facts or the truth it just obscures it, puts it out of mind.

The large speculative finger points at the Ampatuan clan as the perpetrators and they attempted to bury their participation along with the dead in those pits and pin the blame on the MILF whom the Ampatuans helped the central Filipino government fight against.

Here is the Wiki entry on the massacre.