Filipinos who are shocked by the barbarity of the Maguindanao massacre that killed 27 journalists and 30 others might not realise that they helped pay for it. The killers were militiamen and police officers, armed and funded by the taxpayer, government investigators said.
Killings carried out by politicians' private armies are commonplace in the Philippines, especially in election season. But Monday's carnage in the southern Philippines exposed the unsavoury trend of political warlords placing their henchmen on the state payroll.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno noted the alarming development this week: 'You know, when there is a local official with criminal intent ... they should not be given the ability to use legal institutions to foster their personal agenda.'
The briefing by Puno and military and police commanders was held after they succeeded in arresting Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a town mayor and member of the powerful Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao, on suspicion that he led this week's bloodbath. The slaughter has set a world record for the number of journalists killed while reporting on a democratic exercise.
The reporters were covering the largely female entourage of a candidate's wife who was on her way to file her husband's nomination for governor, despite death threats from Ampatuan's father, three-term Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Snr, who wanted his son to succeed him.
In daylight and despite the presence of several police checkpoints, the group was blocked by around 100 uniformed, armed men, state investigators said.