PORAC, PAMPANGA—As though in reaction to criticism over the Palace’s tepid response to the killing in Maguindanao province of at least 57 people, including lawyers and journalists, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday declared that Thursday would be a day of mourning.

“I am declaring a day of mourning for the victims of the mass murder in Mindanao,” the President said in Filipino during another of her jaunts to her home province of Pampanga, this time to open a P360-million access road connecting Porac to the Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

“I am outraged as everyone is at this crime. It is a travesty of our pledge to uphold the basic humanity of every Filipino,” she said.

Ms Arroyo also pledged that those responsible for the killings would be brought to justice. She said “the law will haunt them until they are caught.”

“Commitment [to] human rights and human dignity shall prevail in the Philippines,” she said.

But Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima said the President needed to prove that she was not protecting Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., whose family controls Maguindanao and is suspected of masterminding the killings.

“I am appealing to the President to show political will … to show to the public that the investigation by the government is serious, that swift and decisive action is being undertaken by authorities in order to give justice to the victims, and hold the Ampatuans criminally liable,” De Lima told Agence France-Presse.

She also said initial investigation had shown that “there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Ampatuans are involved,” and that the attack “appears to be premeditated.”

Black ribbons

In Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said black ribbons would be put up in the Palace compound for Thursday’s day of mourning.

Ermita said the government was preparing to “disarm” the Ampatuans, who had helped Ms Arroyo clinch victory in the 2004 presidential election and delivered a 12-0 sweep for the administration’s Team Unity in the 2007 senatorial elections.

“This is not a simple election feud between opposing clans; this is a supreme act of inhumanity that is a blight on our nation,” Ms Arroyo said in a strongly worded statement read by Ermita at a media briefing.

Ermita said the President had insisted that the statement come out Wednesday, apparently to counter criticism that her administration was treating the Ampatuans with kid gloves.

He said Ms Arroyo was upset by the mass murder: “Masama talaga ang loob ng Presidente.”

But on Tuesday, Lorelei Fajardo, the President’s deputy spokesperson, said the killings were only “an incident between two families in Mindanao.”

“We cannot be affected by that…” Fajardo had said.

Appeal for calm

The President said in her statement that she understood “too well the volatility of the political situation in [Maguindanao].”

“And for this reason, I reiterate with even greater urgency my personal appeal for calm and restraint,” she said. “This crime is too outrageous not to prick the conscience of this nation, or any other nation for that matter. Let us hope that the outrage is overcome by reason and by our need to live our lives in peace, honor and human dignity.”

Added Ms Arroyo: “The gruesome killings in Maguindanao constitute a most heinous crime. What makes it particularly so is the fact that it counts among its victims, lawyers, media reporters and other defenseless and innocent civilians.

“Like many others, I am appalled and outraged by it, and I join the rising chorus of indignation against it.”

More votes promised

At last week’s national convention of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition, Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao took the microphone and pledged to deliver votes for party standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro and the rest of the administration ticket in the May 2010 elections.

But Ermita said: “The sense of debt of gratitude as a result of the [past] political exercises should not becloud the issue of whether anyone or any group has committed some illegal acts or have violated the law.

“It should not be made an excuse for us not to follow the law.”

Ermita said Secretary Jesus Dureza, head of the Maguindanao crisis committee, was preparing a list of “immediate” recommendations including the dismantling of the Ampatuan private armies to help “defuse the situation in the area.”

“We are looking toward that direction,” he said.

Ermita, former interim president of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, said the Ampatuans could be sanctioned by the party if they would be found responsible for the Maguindanao massacre.

“They’re not [untouchable],” he said. “Nobody should be untouchable, and I mean nobody. If anyone commits a crime especially as heinous as this one, I don’t see why anybody could think people should be considered untouchable.”

Ermita urged Mayor Ampatuan Jr. to “go above his personal interest and be very cooperative in the conduct of the investigation to show that he is a man of the law, a leader who can be trusted.”

Visit to Porac

Despite her strong words and her professed outrage over the mass murder, Ms Arroyo found time to visit Barangay Hacienda Dolores in Porac and unveil the marker of the 5.7-kilometer access road to the SCTEx.

The road is the second of the three additional interchanges heading to the SCTEx. The other two are the Yokohama-Clark interchange that was opened last year and the Floridablanca interchange expected to open next year.

“Finally, Porac can boom as a business center because of this access road. This is an attraction for investors,” Mayor Rogelio Santos said.

But De Lima, a former elections lawyer, criticized Ms Arroyo’s strategy of merely sending one of her advisers to talk with the Ampatuans Wednesday and seek an assurance from them that they would cooperate in an investigation.

“They opted for a diplomatic way out. There should do more than that,” De Lima said.

She said she could not understand “why the investigative authorities, police and the justice department could not invite the Ampatuans for questioning even if they be assisted by counsel.” Reports from Charlene Cayabyab in Pampanga, Christian V. Esguerra in Manila, and Agence France-Presse