Fifty-eight persons were killed in a remote area in the municipality of Ampatuan in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 in what is considered as the worst pre-election violence in the country. Thirty-two of the victims were media workers who accompanied the convoy of relatives bound for the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. The latter was challenging his former allies, the Ampatuans, by running for governor of Maguindanao.
MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO