When news of this massacre first broke out, the first thing that went through my head was "F#$%@! American Business Interests."

I was horrified by the event. I still am. But something about it just did not add up.

Infighting amongst warlords in the Philippines especially in that region is common, especially now that the May 2010 presidential elections is just looming around the corner.

What made me stop and think was that this was too vicious and too blatant. They usually try to keep it within them so as not to attract attention.

This was different: It involved women and journalists and they were murdered in the most heinous fashion. It almost feels engineered to spark riots or a rebellion.

Then it occurred to me, of all 'coincidences', after years of being ignored by Washington, wasn't Hillary Clinton, the current Secretary of State of the United States of America, just here for a visit about 10 days before the massacre? One of her main agenda for coming here: 'peace talks' in Mindanao.

And didn't Gloria just visit Hillary in Washington before that?

Then I remembered, aren't Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Hillary Clinton also related? Gloria was Bill Clinton's classmate at Georgetown University and Hillary's the wife of Bill.

It got me into thinking. It's too much of a coincidence.

Arroyo is the wiliest living politician I have ever come across. You just have to admire her from that point of view, despite wanting to crucify her from a moralistic standpoint. I just know she's hedging to become the next Prime Minister by entering the Congress and manipulating things from there. But she knows that you need US support for that. Or at least non-interference.

GMA must be dangling something for the US, and it's somehow related to American Business Interests in the area, but what?

What does Maguindanao have to offer anyway?

Where is Maguindanao? Courtesy of Google Maps, I was able to center it in perspective to the world. It's right smack in the middle of the Asia Pacific Region. If there will be some sort of military base there, it would provide good access points to US, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia as well as great jump off point for mainland Asia (i.e. China).

Had the perpetrator's plans worked perfectly, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would have been blamed. The local terrorists. Terrorists. Terrorist who trained with Al-Queda. Al-Queda: founded by Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden, the US' most wanted terrorist.

Currently the US & Philippines have a Visiting Forces Agreement. Basically this allows the US to have US base-like privileges here without having a US Military base in the country. US Military personnel are present here and conduct 'military exercises' in this country. (Note that these exercises are done in Mindanao).

If the 'guilt' of these terrorists have been established, the US would have swarmed all over Maguindanao to 'help'. They already have the forces in place. And if they succeeded, whooopteedo, grateful Philippines would be more than willing to host another military base in Maguindanao.

It's a good thing the whole thing was marred by a comedy of errors: the yellow backhoe left on the scene being a prominent clue. How this case will end still remains to be seen.

What else could make Maguindanao appealing? What is that thing that US went to war for again? Oh, yeah, OIL. I'm sure the wealth of other natural resources like minerals and timbre in the area isn't something to scoff at either. And oh, wasn't there another APEC summit before this all went down?

TIMELINE

February 1, 1996: Drilling for Oil in Maguindanao goes full blast
November 22-26, 2009: APEC 1996 Summit - Subic, Philippines (First time Hillary Clinton came to the Philippines with Bill Clinton. Gloria was Senator back then.)
July 2, 2009: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo meets Hillary Clinton in Washington
November 11, 2009: Hillary Clinton Arrives in Manila
November 13-14, 2009: APEC 2009 Summit - Singapore
November 23, 2009: News about the Maguindanao 'Ampatuan' Massacre broke out.
May 10, 2010: Philippine National Elections

Sources: