Last November 23, as grieving families of that evil tragedy revisited the massacre site in Bry. Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao, where a total of 58 victims that included 32 journalists were slaughtered, and while journalists, students and militants with a single voice angrily shouted “Justice for Journalists” as they marched from Espana to Mendiola near Malacanang , some 12 media personnel and PNP officials in Marinduque were exchanging views on the need to adopt security measures for local media practitioners here.
That meant having to keep an iron grip on their enormous wealth, (‘ill-gotten’, Mangundadatu maintains as billions of pesos from national funds have been given to that province), a firm hold over their constituents to keep the status quo of the province undisturbed and unchanged as the third poorest in the country. That’s the only way the fiefdom could be preserved intact so that its rulers may reign forever and ever. But that also could mean woe and horror to whoever would put up a challenge and start talk about change. That’s exactly what mayor Esmael Mangundadatu did when he decided to run against the governor.
(Map showing Marinduque's poverty incidence)Marinduque with just six municipalities has been ruled by a political clan for 32 years. Political alliance with the ruling party has also been the name of the game. Marinduque as the poorest province in the entire Southern Tagalog region has been borne by statistical data. (And by the way, just to show that Marinduque shouldn’t be so poverty-stricken, the biggest mining concern in Asia-Pacific region operated here for over two decades, wreaked havoc on the environment and despite claims to the contrary got away with non-payment of property taxes to the province, now estimated to be a whopping one billion pesos, but that’s another Marcopper story). Yet the hornet’s nest has been stirred.
..more @:
http://marinduquegov.blogspot.com/2010/11/personal-security-measures-for.html
