Manila - The Philippines Tuesday declared emergency rule and dispatched additional security forces to a southern province as the death toll in the country's worst-ever election-related violence reached 46. Police investigators dug up 24 bodies in shallow mass graves in a hilly area in Salman village in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, police Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna said.
Twenty-two bodies were recovered earlier littered around the area after Monday's gruesome killings, which were blamed on political rivalry between two prominent clans in Maguindanao.
Cataluna, a regional police director, said all bodies were riddled with bullets.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed Maguindanao, the adjacent province of Sultan Kudarat and nearby Cotabato City under a state of emergency, giving the military and police a free hand to go after the perpetrators.
In her order, Arroyo said the emergency rule aims to ensure that the hostilities would not escalate.
"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," Arroyo said.
"The military and the police are hereby ordered to undertake such measures as may be allowed by the constitution and by law to prevent and suppress all incidents of lawless violence in the areas," she added.
The military and police deployed hundreds of extra forces to Maguindanao to secure the province and investigate the killings.
At least four people survived the massacre, according to Buluan town Mayor Ibrahim Mangudadatu.
Mangudadatu, whose two sisters and a sister-in-law were killed, declined to give additional information on the survivors, who he said would be identified at the appropriate time.
"They were passengers of one van that was able to flee when they saw that the other vehicles in the convoy were stopped," he said. "There could be more survivors, but we are still checking."
The victims were part of a group of more than 40 people seized by about 100 gunmen on their way to file the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu for Maguindanao governor in elections in May.
The gunmen were allegedly led by a scion of the Ampatuan family, a rival of the Mangudadatus.
Among those killed were Esmael's wife, two human rights lawyers and at least 17 local journalists covering the event, according to the vice mayor.
Esmael Mangudadatu said he sent his wife and sisters to file his certificate of candidacy after receiving death threats for planning to run against the Ampatuans for the post of governor in Maguindanao.
"We thought they were safe because they were women," he said.
Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, national police spokesman, said investigators were already gathering evidence against several suspects.
"We will charge them in court, and when there is a warrant of arrest that comes out, we will arrest whoever is responsible," he said. "There will be no sacred cows here."
Espina said among those being investigated were four police officers who were sacked after being implicated in the killings, including the deputy police chief in Maguindanao.
He said the head of police in the province was also dismissed due to command responsibility.
International media and human rights groups condemned the killing, which has shocked even the southern region of Mindanao where feuding groups and families often settle differences through violence.
The Philippines is due to hold presidential and national elections in May. Elections in the country have traditionally been marred by violence, despite additional gun restrictions imposed during the campaign and polling periods.
