MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The Philippines worst mass killing "was not an aberration" but the result of government policies and support by police and paramilitary groups, a report said.
Nearly 60 people were shot and knifed to death on Nov. 23, 2009, during an ambush, allegedly by members of the Ampatuan clan with their "private army," that included local policemen.
The people were on their way to register a candidate for a local election in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines but they never reached their destination.
The event shocked a nation that is no stranger to ruthless killings and clan-associated violence based on local politics. However, it was the large number of deaths and the fact that the killing was done in daylight with little attempt to hide any evidence that made headline news for weeks afterward.
But a year after the massacre, "the Philippine government has failed to seriously investigate atrocities by powerful ruling families, ban abusive militia forces, or curtail access of officials to military weaponry," the 96-page report from Human Rights Watch said.
The report, "They Own the People: The Ampatuans, State-Backed Militias and Killings in the Southern Philippines," charts the Ampatuans' rise to power, including their alleged use of violence to expand their control and eliminate threats to the family's rule.
Human Rights Watch said the report is based on more than 80 interviews, including with people having inside knowledge of the Ampatuan family security structure, victims of abuses and their family members and witnesses to crimes.
"The Maguindanao massacre was not an aberration, but the foreseeable consequence of unchecked killings and other serious abuses," James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said.
The report lays the blame for the killing with the military and police who provided the family with manpower, weapons and protection from prosecution. "For two decades the Ampatuans committed atrocities with a private army manned by police and soldiers carrying government-supplied weapons," it said.
Most members of their private army were also members of the police, military or state-sanctioned paramilitary forces, including Civilian Volunteer Organizations and the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Units, the report said.
The government has charged 195 people in connection with the November 2009 killings but 115 of those charged remain at large.
Ampatuan family members, including former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and the former Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., the primary suspect, are among 19 people on trial.
But Human Rights Watch said the trial is only a very small part of a larger human rights abuse network that has been sanctioned either directly or indirectly by governments, including that of the recent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
"The Ampatuans' rise and expansion was aided by the president at the time of the massacre, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who relied on the family for crucial votes and for support in the protracted armed conflict with Moro armed groups in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch said its investigators visited the area after the November 2009 killings and found a litany of human rights abuses that had been going on for years.
"Under the Arroyo administration, militia forces, which have a long history of human rights violations in the Philippines, were greatly strengthened because of the increased sale of military weaponry to local officials and other support. The administration also failed to address impunity for serious rights abuses. In 2002 Arroyo was directly notified of 33 killings allegedly perpetrated by the Ampatuans, but she took no apparent action," the report said.
Ross said: "Families like the Ampatuans have used officially sanctioned paramilitaries as private armies to spread terror and maintain power. The government needs to stop being part of the problem and instead disband the militias and hold abusers to account."
