THE MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE VICTIMS REVEALED. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” - Genesis 3:19 November 24, 2009, in one of the mountainous region in the province of maguindanao, an investigating and excavation team was formed and for the first time, tried to break up earth to uncover one of the most revolting slaughters of human life. The weather was undoubtedly fair that day as if everything was placed together to reveal the authenticity of a hideous massacre which the perpetrators tried to conceal. The location was truly remote, far from inhabitants - a strategic spot to craft a sickening killing spree. Up on the crime scene where authorities pool around the area, a big machine called a backhoe, painted with words whose administration belongs to the governor – Andal S. Ampatuan Sr.-and without an operator was parked just above a soft ground of earth. The ground to which it was parked was uneven, its position and the surrounding to which it stands was trying to suggest that whatever work to be done in that place remains to be unfinished. Just beside the backhoe were four unevenly parked automobiles, some windows holed with a bullet and all doors of the vehicles were left open. Upon a closer inspection, there lay several lifeless human bodies, flat on the ground and blood drenched. Their face almost unrecognizable, bullets fired on several parts of their bodies, others show apparent lacerations and some have torn pieces of the clothes they were on. Women and men alike suffered the same unfortunate end with no regard and hesitation on the part of the perpetrators. On that same day several men worked on excavating the ground which remains unrevealed. Shovels were used to carefully dig a portion of the soft ground, and sometime thereafter revealed a persons’ hand which they all tried to pull out. They covered the person’s body with cloth to prevent it from being seen upon fully retrieving it from the ground. Upon carefully unearthing the land they exhumed more lifeless bodies not less appalling than the fate suffered by those lifeless bodies found above ground. One by one the excavators extracted more bodies, their shovels pressing deeper against the soil and there revealed one lifeless body after another. The exhumed bodies’ appearance were unrecognizable due to dirt and blood covering most parts of their bodies. The victim’s faces were all covered with blood suggesting their suffering. The bluish color of their skin and noticeable abrasions represent the cold treatment they suffered from their killer. The sight of the tormented bodies excavated were bothering, one eye popping out from its eyeball socket , intestines dangling from their stomachs, a leg detached from the main body of the corpse. Every lifeless body found not less bothering than the rest.
The appearance of more bodies as they go deep in the mass grave, suggest that it will take more time than they thought. Upon recognizing the need to hasten the excavation and the possibility that more bodies were buried, they made use of the backhoe which made the digging faster and the discovery of more bodies were exposed. Still more lifeless, blood drenched, clothes torn and suffered bodies were unearthed. The holes on their clothes which pierced their human bodies gave the one who has seen these dead bodies an idea of the cause of their death. Bullet holes directed on the thighs, chest and the stomach which made their organs protrude in a dreadful manner. The horrible sight of their misfortune could not in any manner delight someone who has a soul.
The untiring efforts of the excavators were remarkable, for hours they have uncovered more bodies. Dead bodies come up in every meter they dug, bodies which lay one after another. They dug, pulled and carried dead bodies. The excavators were either a military person, a police personnel or a member of the Scene Of the Crime Operatives, each one helping one another to give rise to more dead bodies out of that pit. Every hour that pass took them five to ten or more lifeless bodies which seemed to be unending and countless. A bloody and cold mass murder of men, an annihilation of a clan and of innocent persons. Men, women and children of all shapes and sizes unearthed from a bloody earth pit.
Following exhumation, the bodies were placed on the ground some were covered with banana leaves, their faces covered with newspaper with swarming flies over their dead bodies. One after another they were wrapped on plastic and were placed on a truck to which the destination is unknown, perhaps somewhere in which to conduct another investigation on the bodies.
November 25, 2009, the second day of excavation and investigation. The day was as fair as the day before and the same authorities were again on the same site. This time to dig a portion of the soil they weren’t able to dig the day before. Again they are confronted with all other possibility unknown to them in uncovering a new pit. They started to dig with the use of the backhoe, possibly they knew from the experience they had on the first day that the hole to be dug was deep and time consuming. As the heavy machine dug the surface part of the soil a new revelation caught their consciousness – a vehicle was also placed on that side of the pit. With iron wires that they attached to the vehicle and to the end of the heavy backhoe machine, they pulled it. A red car with the city logo of Tagurong was recovered; they took efforts to identify anything material to the investigation by taking pictures of the car and its plate number. The car’s body was squeezed in all areas like a tin can that has been wringed; the color red recognizable. Thereafter , they placed it on a heavy truck. As they continued their excavation another body was found in the same pit where the car was drawn from. Lifeless, bathed in blood and dirty with soil like all the other dead bodies drawn from the ground before.
They continued to dig deeper against the ground and another vehicle was revealed and a dead man beside the buried car was found, brutally killed and wounded on several parts of his body. They first lifted up the dead man’s corpse followed by the vehicle, in which gasoline dripped from its tanks and called out for anyone to stop smoking or anyone with a fire which could cause an explosion. The The vehicle was unrecognizable, patched in all places, compressed and its iron body wreaked from excavation. But on the efforts of the investigators they found out that the vehicle was a white L-300 van, belonging from the press. Again they took pictures of the wrecked vehicle and identified its plate number examined it and placed on the truck to which the first exhumed vehicle was placed and transported it to some other place. Then another dead man’s body was revealed and exhumed the same, and again not less distorted looking than the rest. They covered the bodies with newspaper sheets but its sordid features undoubtedly exposed. Other bodies were revealed and exhumed, dug up from the pit one dead body after another. Yet, the end was not nearing, a vehicle tire has revealed on the surface a sign that the hole was dug deeper than expected. Upon fully recovering the vehicle from the sand covered pit, it was recognized as a blue Tamaraw FX, with its plate number barely recognizable. After further examination of the distraught vehicle it was placed in a heavy dump truck like all the other exhumed vehicles were placed and thereafter transported. Following the events, the three vehicles found within the area the day before; namely the three Toyota vans were drove to a different location. All other exhumed materials from the excavation site were placed on the dump truck and was likewise transported. They continued digging the ground to see if there were more vehicles or dead persons buried inside. They succeeded to excavate more lifeless bodies which were believed to be coming from the vehicles earlier unearthed.
It was believed that some 50 or more men and women suffered this same fate. The exhumation processes is over, like the lives of those killed in this unthinkable massacre. It is hard to think that a human who is capable of feelings, of love and care can do this dreadful inhuman act in a cold and brutal manner. Yet underneath this brutality and unconscious tendency of man for power, the truth is still settled. That beyond the life we have, we will all return to dust even those who thought his life was more precious than anyone else.