'Sexual mutilation' in Philippines massacre

 
Speaking on national television, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said “even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women.”

Devanadera said several of the men accused of participating in the slaughter have surrendered and offered to testify. “They are bothered by their conscience because they thought that only the Mangudadatus would be shot,” she said.

The 57 dead included 30 journalists and media workers, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. The rest were the relatives, lawyers and supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician, as well as 15 individuals who were not part of the Mangudadatu group. Investigators said the 15 were killed apparently to eliminate witnesses.

Devanadera said the zippers of the women’s pants had been undone, some of them pulled down. She said authorities were still trying to determine whether the women had been raped but “it is certain that something bad was done to them.”

Twenty-two of the victims were women, among them  were Mangudadatu’s wife Genalyn, his two sisters and his two lawyers.