Philippines' deadliest massacre tests government

AMPATUAN, Philippines – A few miles off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.Nearby, bodies were being laid out under banana leaves Tuesday as police-their faces covered against the stench-unearthed a mass grave containing 22 victims from Monday's ambush on an election caravan. The discovery brought the death toll to 46-an unprecedented act of violence at the outset of the country's election season.As many as five people remained unaccounted for.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring southern province, sending extra troops and police to try to impose the rule of law.
"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said....
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Picture Left:Police investigators tag a body found in a shallow grave at the massacre site of a political clan that included several journalists in the outskirts of Ampatuan, Maguindanao in southern Philippines November 25, 2009. The latest death toll in the massacre is 52, police said on Wednesday.(REUTERS/Erik de Castro)