But the real clincher is whether the local government officials are allied with the party in power in the Manila government because when that is the case, they are given wide latitude to handpick the police officials they wish to be assigned to their province and who will in turn select, train, arm and command the CVOs. It all falls into place: the armed CVOs, ostensibly to help enforce peace in the communities, are easily transformed into government-sanctioned, -funded and -trained private armies of the local warlords.

The impunity with which military and police elements have been able to perpetrate crimes mostly under orders from “higher ups” or other masters, must also be underscored with the officers that allowed the carnage escaping prosecution for criminal neglect, not to mention outright complicity in the murders.

In the same vein, not a single suspect from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Department of national Defense and Department of Interior and Local Governments has been identified much less charged for providing the weapons, ammunitions and even armored vehicles found in the Ampatuan arsenal.

Needless to say, all these government agencies could by no means undertake a cover-up of such magnitude and complexity without a master plan hatched at the highest levels of government.

The Ampatuan monster, as we have pointed out before, is not a freak in the sense of being an isolated and accidental phenomenon. It is the creation of a tyrannical regime waging a war of terror on its own people. (Business World / Posted by Bulatlat)

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