They belonged to the rival Mangudadatu clan, but since they were women accompanied by a media delegation, they believed they were safe, protected by the Koranic prescription to spare women.

No one could have predicted the ruthlessness that met them.

At least 36 people, mostly identified with Buluan, Maguindanao vice mayor Datu Ismail "Toto" Mangudadatu and including a dozen media people, were abducted and later killed on Monday by gunmen allegedly led by members of the Ampatuan political clan.

Toto's wife, Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, was among those killed, according to Toto himself.

Madaser Mangudadato, Toto's brother and assemblyman in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said some of the victims were beheaded.

Even in the annals of political violence in the Philippines, this incident may have no equal in its brutality and in number of lives taken. The Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971 killed nine at a rally of the Liberal Party

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Aaron

4 more bodies recovered in deadly poll-related incident

MANILA - The death toll from the savage political massacre in Maguindanao rose to 46 on Tuesday, as President Arroyo placed the area under an indefinite state of emergency.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina told reporters in Manila that 24 bodies had been recovered on Tuesday, on top of 22 that had been found on Monday.

Regional police commander Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna described a grisly search operation along an unpaved road in the isolated rural village of Saniag, saying 17 bodies had been pulled from just one grave.

"They were piled on top of each other. It looked as if they were buried hurriedly," he told reporters from the scene.

The scale of Monday's massacre, as well as the targeting of apparently unrelated people, has shocked and deeply angered the country.

Fourteen of the victims were women and some of them were journalists with no apparent links to the clan war, the police and military said when the death toll stood at 22.

PNP chief Jesus Verzosa, who flew to the south to supervise the investigation, said he feared the death toll could rise with several other members of the kidnapped party of more than 40 people still missing.

"We still have to check one other suspected mass grave," he added.

Journalists on the scene said a mechanical digger was emblazoned with the name of the Maguindanao provincial governor, Andal Ampatuan, whose bodyguards had been blamed by the military as being behind the massacre.

Aaron

Fight for the justice of the media reporter was massacre in maguindanao..

MANILA - Six bodies have been unearthed from the "killing fields" in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province on Wednesday, bringing the death toll of the bloodiest election-related incident to 52.

A report by ABS-CBN Cotabato said four bodies -- three men and a woman -- were initially retrieved from a UNTV van and a red Toyota Vios with an official seal of the Tacurong City local government.

The two vehicles were part of a six-vehicle convoy of the Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, who was supposed to file a certificate of candidate for governor on behalf of her husband, Buluan Vice-Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu.

At past noon, two more bodies were also recovered from the site. Retrieval teams were also trying to dig out a blue Toyota Tamaraw FX, which was initially reported as being driven by a son of a local official in Maguindanao.

Media people were also part of the convoy, including the UNTV van. They were supposed to cover the filing of the COC in Sharif Aguak town.

Police said a group of at least 100 gunmen ambushed the convoy and ordered members of the Mangudadatu family and the media men out of their vehicles before shooting them all dead. There were indications that the women were raped.

An initial list of media people included in the convoy, as gathered by ABS-CBN, showed 4 members of a UNTV network crew. They were identified as Joy Duhay, Victor Nuñez, Macmac Ariola and Jimmy Cabillo.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said a total of 12 journalists have been recovered from the burial site as of Monday night. The NUJP said they expect the number to increase to 20.

ANC's executive producer Patricia Evangelista, who was at the retrieval site, reported that authorities were expecting the death toll to increase to more than 60.

Evangelista said there were reports that people on board vehicles that were not part of the Mangudadatus' convoy were also stopped and shot dead.

The military said the main suspects in the abductions and murders were gunmen hired by the Maguindanao governor, Andal Ampatuan, and his son who has the same name.

Relatives of the victims and witnesses have said the powerful political clan wanted to stop Mangudadatu from challenging Ampatuan junior for the post of governor in next year's national elections.

Three policemen believed loyal to the Ampatuans have been detained for their alleged involvement in the murders.

Following the massacre, President Gloria Arroyo imposed emergency rule on Maguindanao, neighboring Cotabato City and nearby Sultan Kudarat province. -- Reports from Lerio Bompat, ABS-CBN Cotabato, Patricia Evangelista, ANC executive producer and Agence France-Presse