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.

Maguindanao Massacre - Theory Frame Up

If you have been following the story you will note people are generating many bits over the story.

Watching some of my Filipino contacts on Twitter I am noticing various theories put forward to explain the massacre. The first is put forth by The Bangsa Moro Blog:

The Mangudadatus, it must be noted, were very close to the Ampatuans and were therefore part of the power clique in Maguindanao.

Source: Bangsa Moro Blog — The MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE The theory being this was a frame up to make the MILF look bad (NO MILF in this case has nothing to do with hot mothers).

Another story out there being pushed by Ruffy Biazon:

About three months ago, August 28, 2009 to be exact...n his statement to the Committee, Vice Governor Piñol revealed that he had warned Malacañang about the potential for the outbreak of hostilities between the MAngudadatus and the Ampatuans in relation to the 2010 elections. It was a warning which was explicit and clear. But in spite of that, it was ignored.

The Way It Is (Congressman Ruffy Biazon) — Malacañang Was Warned About the Maguindanao Massacre Three Months Ago When and where have we heard of such accusations before? However, I will admit in this case things are more actionable at least the Filipino central government could have looked into things a bit more and most likely could have done so without having to be clandestine about it.

Bangsa Moro claims the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus were allies or at least cooperating with each other, whereas Ruffy Biazon says he has reliable claims they were at odds with each other. Ruffy provides a person and documented testimony that nastiness is imminent.

What really destorys Bangsa Moro's case is a cell phone call blows the operation up. That is all it took? The PNP &/or AFP had a backhoe ready, a large contingent of gunmen and did not order the local cell tower operators to shut down? It is not like cell phones are rare in the Philippines (they are in fact NOT rare). Plus, frameups require lots of people keeping their stories straight. It is easy enough to imagine motives — it is not easy to imagine it really succeeding. What is hard to imagine is there is only one cell phone call reported instead of many and text messages.