Powerful Filipino clan says innocent in massacre

GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines — Kristia Subang wiped her father's coffin with a cloth and recalled the last time she saw the veteran newspaperman, when he woke her with a surprise gift of a new set of shoes for school — the night before he and 29 colleagues were massacred on their final assignment.

Relatives of the journalists — among 57 civilians who were shot and hacked to death in a Nov. 23 attack on an election convoy in the southern Philippines — gathered for a wake Sunday at a rundown funeral parlor. The white wooden coffins were all shut except for one to hide their remains, disfigured in a slaughter that used guns, machetes and a backhoe.

The massacre highlighted the violent factionalism that plagues the volatile region — and the deadly risks journalists take in covering it. The powerful clan accused in the killings vowed it was innocent and said Sunday it would wage a legal battle to disprove the allegations.

Media watchdogs say it was the world's deadliest single assault on journalists. The carnage drew worldwide condemnation, including from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but few media professionals here think the killings will stop.

Though the Philippines prides itself on having one of the freest presses in Southeast Asia, journalists say they face such dangers on a daily basis. Raging Muslim and communist rebellions, more than a million unlicensed guns, clan wars, rampant crime and weak law enforcement conspire to create one of the world's most hostile environments for journalists, according to newspaper publisher Ronald Mascardo.

In the autonomous region of southern Mindanao where he works, the risks are especially high. Journalists have been shot to death for exposing corruption and misdeeds, kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants or threatened by officials and outlaws.

"When I leave for work each day, there's only a 50-50 chance I can return alive," said the 37-year-old Mascardo, who lost a staffer to the killings, and attended Sunday's wake in General Santos city for 10 of the slain journalists. "It's like Russian roulette, using a six-shooter loaded with three bullets."

The massacre victims were in a convoy to cover a local politician's filing of his intention to run for governor in predominantly Muslim Maguindanao province when dozens of gunmen abducted and then butchered them en masse on a nearby hill and buried them in mass graves. The candidate's wife and sisters were also among the dead.

The main suspect — Andal Ampatuan Jr., the son of a political warlord — has been detained in Manila and faces multiple murder charges.