‘ONLY DEATH CAN STOP ME’

Buluan Vice Mayor Ismail Mangudadatu, whose wife and relatives were among 57 people massacred in Maguindanao in an apparent bid to stop him from running for governor, filed his candidacy yesterday for the election.

"Only death can stop me from running," said Mangudadatu, escorted by soldiers, a police commander and a senior army general.

He submitted his documents to the Commission on Elections in Maguindanao’s capital of Sharrif Aguak.

His caravan of more than 50 vehicles took the same road where his wife, two sisters, supporters and journalists were stopped and killed Monday and their bodies dumped in mass graves.

About 300 policemen and soldiers escorted him.

Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu, deputy director for operations of the PNP in Region 12, was assigned as ground commander of Ampatuan town, helped secure Mangudadatu’s convoy.