PLM statement - Justice for Victims of Maguindanao Massacre

Justice for the Maguindanao 46!
End Trapo Politics Now!
Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Heroes Murdered by Trapo Politics!

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the massacre in Maguindanao. We assert that this is not only a problem confined to Mindanao, but that it’s a symptom of a festering and rotten political system. We predict that this violence will be the feature of the coming elections, as the political elite struggle with increasing desperation and ferocity for a share of the ever-dwindling national wealth and power.

The Philippine elections are veritable killing fields and the killings have begun!

We agree that the protection provided to the leaders of the Ampatuan clan by the GMA regime has granted them political immunity, to act with impunity as they will. However, the political impunity of the families and clans that control the political establishment is a permanent feature of politics in this country. It’s the mark of trapo politics. And lest we forget, it was the Ampatuan clan that guaranteed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s theft of the presidency.

The massacre happened because the rival Mangudadatu political clan was contesting the seat of power of the Ampatuans and were on their way to file their candidacy. In these clan wars, it’s the poor who are always the victims as they sacrifice themselves at the altar of trapo politics and for the interest of rotten trapo politicians. The Maguindanao massacre exposes the sham of the political system and the electoral process in this country.

PLM says that the people must act and put an end to this rotten system of trapo politics and the rule of the trapo politicians. Only then can we make a breach in this rotting carcass of the trapo political establishment and bring about fundamental changes in the political system. We need system change! We need to end to elite rule and establish a government of the masa. Only then can we be assured that the violence brought about by trapo political system will be removed.

Sonny Melencio
Chairperson
Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)