The Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people who were traveling to submit nomination papers for a candidate in Maguindanao province was the latest in a series of extrajudicial killings and political violence that has plagued the Philippines for years. What was different was the scale and alleged direct involvement of a high-ranking official, Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor and son of the provincial governor. The Arroyo administration seemed to be at a loss for an appropriate response. First, it reaffirmed its relationship with the Ampatuan clan only to shift its position days later, charging the clan with rebellion and declaring martial law in the province.

As details of the Ampatuan clan's involvement are uncovered and the debate about Arroyo's decision to declare martial law continues, several troubling and uncomfortable facts have emerged.

First, the Ampatuans' rise has coincided with their allegiance to Arroyo since 2001. Over the years, the two built a strong alliance with the Ampatuans providing local security and votes in critical elections. The Arroyo administration relied on the private army the Ampatuans had amassed and heavy-handed tactics to maintain law and order in the absence of an adequately staffed police force. One of the common complaints by human rights organizations has been that the Arroyo administration has been too tolerant of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances throughout the Philippines but especially in Mindanao. The Committee to Protect Journalists has named the country as the "most dangerous place to be a journalist." Some have speculated that the real reason for declaring martial law was to create the opportunity to recover evidence from the Ampatuan residences that could be used to blackmail the Arroyo administration.

A wide range of Filipinos fear that Arroyo will use the event to retain power beyond the end of her term as president in May 2010. When she declared martial law on Dec. 4 — something eerily reminiscent of the waning days of the Marcos presidency in 1972 — rumors and wild scenarios quickly spread about how Arroyo would use the opportunity to her advantage. Within 48 hours of the declaration, seven petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the action and a joint congressional session was scheduled to vote on revoking the declaration. Eight days later, on Dec. 12, after charging five other members of the Ampatuan clan with rebellion and facing a likely unfavorable ruling by the Supreme Court and a revocation of the decree by a clearly agitated Congress, Arroyo rescinded the declaration saying the threat of "imminent rebellion" in Maguindanao had subsided. While talking of taking decisive action in the face of a non-functioning legal system and the discovery of large caches of weapons, Arroyo seemed to miss a rather simple point: The problem was not the collapse of the judicial and legal system in Maguindanao. Rather, it was an out-of-control warlord working with the assistance of a private army and collusion of a group of corrupt officials. This was not rebellion; it was the consequence of allowing a warlord to take control in the name of expediency.

The immediate need at this point is restoring confidence between the local government in Maguindanao and the central government. That someone could even contemplate a politically motivated massacre on this scale reflects a deeply ingrained culture of impunity and a blatant disregard for the country's security institutions. The first step in restoring their credibility is to end the reliance on local warlords and private armies as a cheap substitute for internal security. The next step is to build local capacity that is responsive to the rule of law and not the interests of the highest bidder or the biggest bully. This will require real leadership and serious investment of both resources and time.

Hopefully, this incident will serve as a starting point to address the problems of political violence and clan rivalry in a coherent, systematic way. After years of reliance on "crony security" and extrajudicial means to deal with those deemed undesirable, the temptation to decide political matters through violence remains great, especially in Mindanao where clan rivalries are deep-seated and intense. Only by creating local security institutions that address the needs of all constituencies and eliminating corrupt officials that disregard the country's established legal system can the Philippine government hope to create a lasting peace in the region and the country.

Carl Baker is the director of programs at Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.