Gov. Isidro Zayco yesterday called on candidates for the May 2010 polls in Negros Occidental not to resort to violence in resolving disputes, in the wake of the recent massacre in Maguindanao that left 57 dead.

Nobody wins when one resorts to violence, let us leave it to the people to decide whom they wish to elect into office, he said.

Zayco said the maximum penalty should be imposed on those responsible for the Maguindanao massacre.

The National of Council of Churches in the Philippines called the massacre “foul, gross and utterly repugnant.”

It also said it was outraged that government did not act with dispatch on the matter.

“The massacre is a grim reminder of the pervading culture of impunity and the lack of respect for human rights,” the NCCP said.

“The gruesome massacre of unarmed civilians is also a painful reminder that government statements on the dismantling of political warlordism have been mere rhetoric. Government has either turned a blind eye or entered into alliances with these warlords for political expediency at the expense of creating democratic space,” it said.

“We pray that peace and justice be given a chance in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country,” the NCCP added.

Akbayan Negros, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement-Negros and the Change Politics Movement-Negros in a joint statement also condemned the massacre and urged the Arroyo government to act speedily to solve the crimes, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Ma. Teresa Lozada, co-convenor of the Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Secotr-Akbayan Negros, and Edwin Balajadia, area manager of PRRM-Negros and concurrently, provincial coordinator of CPM-Negros, said the horrific incident has shamed the country throughout the world in terms of the severity and barbarity of such political violence and showed the extent of how warlordism virtually control such places like Maguindanao.

Lozada said CIU is grieving the deaths of five of their members, employees of the Tacurong City local government who were killed while merely traveling in the same highway with the Mangudadatu's convoy.*

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