Defenders of the status quo in the country have been quiet since the news of the Maguindanao massacre broke out. We can’t blame them because the moment they open their foul mouths and spread their cynical views, they wouldn’t know what hit them from a nation shocked and angered by the incident and (re-)discovering its root causes and circumstances.

The massacre reintroduces to the nation the toxic mix that can only come from the worst bureaucrat-capitalist that is President Arroyo and her favored feudal lords and warlords the Ampatuans. It is a well-established fact that Arroyo needed and valued the Ampatuans’ support in 2004 and 2007, which Arroyo in turn reciprocated many times over. The result: The Ampatuans have a stranglehold on the politics, territory and people of Maguindanao. Arroyo’s Executive Order 546 of 2006 authorized the formation and mobilization of so-called civilian volunteer organizations a.k.a. paramilitaries, private armies and vigilante groups that were placed under the control of the police, military and local authorities, including the Ampatuans. The objective perhaps was to aid the feudal lords and warlords terrorize the public into voting their way and in Arroyo’s way in 2007 and in 2010.

It is really good and healthy to our collective national intelligence that no one has come forward to claim that the Maguindanao massacre was an isolated incident which has been the standard refrain we have heard from the Arroyo government for each and every one of the over 1,000 extrajudicial executions that have blighted the Philippines since 2001.

For going by what we know now, the massacre was not a handiwork of a few, evil men. It was well-planned. Tractors dug huge holes where the bodies and vehicles were to be buried. An army of 100 vigilantes were on hand to shoot and kill. The women had to be raped. They did not even think twice about using the provincial vehicles that bore the elder Ampatuan’s name. They did not even think twice of doing it in broad daylight.  If we care to remember, most of the slain activists were murdered in much the same way — brazenly near police or military outposts, and seemingly without any fear of being caught, prosecuted and jailed. This culture of impunity coupled by the Ampatuan’s almost-total control of the area and the support from Malacanang Palace helped and inspired the perpetrators of this carnage.

The Maguindanao massacre should give the 2010 elections a fresh perspective, and help us expand the discourse from the limited and limiting anti-corruption slogan raised by frontrunner Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party. Corruption is an issue, yes. But combating corruption is obviously not enough to bring pro-people reforms outside of Metro Manila, There must be moves to limit and curtail the power of feudal lords and warlords that deprive the people of land, and of economic and political power. For up to this day and age of the internet, many of our people do not enjoy the most fundamental civil and political rights due to these feudal lords and landlords. That a gubernatorial candidate had to resort to a proxy convoy to file a certificate of candidacy and to see that convoy brutally ambushed is a stark reminder to our national political leaders, especially those who aspire for the presidency, that much has to be said and done on making Philippine democracy real and more substantive.

If there are two political dynasties that need to be disbanded pronto, we have them now right in front of us, soon after their naked and brutal display of power and influence: the Ampatuans and the Arroyos.

The peacekeeping operations, civil-military work and advisory assistance brought by American troops to Mindanao, especially in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, also have to be reexamined. It appears that, under the prevailing arrangement, the US troops indirectly prop up the political dynasties, warlords and feudal lords across areas of Mindanao. These “military advisors” — the Arroyo government cannot even say how many of them are there at any time — have made a permanent presence in Mindanao. They have their own objectives that they appear to be achieving, but whether they aid the Philippines’ own interests is obviously a mirage. We cannot allow this to continue unchecked and just be content with periodic photo-ops from the US embassy. (It is not farfetched and we should no longer be surprised that this outburst of violence may be misused yet again to justify continued US presence in the island.)

Yes, we must demand the swift and impartial prosecution of the brains and perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre. But we have to do more to prevent such carnage from ever recurring.

Let our collective outrage at present compel us to fight for meaningful changes now and in the future, to cut down the evil powers of the corrupt bureaucrats, the landed and violent elite and their foreign masters. Only in doing so would we move towards a situation where genuine democracy prevails.