News stories by Analysis by Gabriel San Rafael

'Young and old, whether you’re against them (the Ampatuans) or not, were (forcibly) taken from their homes and brought to a place somewhere in Maguindanao, where they were tortured and later killed,' recounted a resident of Cotabato City—a major city bordering Maguindanao in southern Philippines— who declined to be named out of fear for his life.

In an instant the Philippines emerged as the world’s most dangerous place for journalists, effectively displacing Iraq, which, until the massacre in an impoverished town in southern Philippines, held that dubious distinction.