Maguindanao security panel to assess ‘state of emergency’ 07/04/2010

Maguindanao security panel to assess ‘state of emergency’

07/04/2010 Newly installed Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu said he will convene for the first time his Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) next week to decide whether to recommend the lifting or retention of the declaration of state of emergency in the province. The state of emergency has been in effect in Maguindanao, as well as Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City, following the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao that left 57 persons dead, including Mangudadatu’s wife Jenalyn, relatives, lawyers and 30 journalists. “The PPOC will meet to decide on the issue, the security situation is our concern,” Mangudadatu said in a radio interview. As governor of the province, Mangudadatu heads the PPOC. Malacañang issued Presidential Proclamation 1946 that placed Cotabato City and the two provinces under a state of emergency to intensify the manhunt for about 200 suspects in the mass killing.  Many of the suspects were members of the provincial militiamen under former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, Eastern Mindanao Command chief and overall military ground commander in Maguindanao, said it was aimed at “preventing and suppressing the occurrence of similar other incidents of lawless violence.”... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100704hed5.html

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