SHARIFF AGUAK: The Philippines today announced the imposition of martial law in a southern province to quell a rebellion by a powerful clan accused of being behind the massacre of 57 people.

President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said.

“There’s a rebellion in the area,” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. “It was practically an overthrow of government.” Arroyo’s controversial move is the first time martial law has been declared in the Philippines since the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who had the whole of the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981.

Authorities insisted martial law was necessary to rein in swarms of heavily armed gunmen loyal to the Ampatuan clan who had threatened violence if their leaders were taken into custody.

Within hours of the declaration, special forces detained the province’s governor and clan patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Snr, who had ruled Maguindanao since 2001

with Arroyo’s support and the backing of a private army.

More than 4,000 government soldiers were deployed in Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital, and other Ampatuan strongholds, the military said.

By nightfall, 32 people had been taken into custody, including five members of the Ampatuan family and 20 of their militiamen, national police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa told reporters in Manila.

The militiamen were arrested in a raid on an Ampatuan warehouse that also netted 340,000 rounds of ammunition for M16 assault rifles, Verzosa said.

But he warned that the many gunmen not yet rounded up were likely to fight back.

Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a son of the patriarch, is already in a Manila detention centre after being charged with 25 counts of murder for the November 23 massacre that took place in a farming area near Shariff Aguak town.

Police allege he and his men shot dead the occupants of a convoy that included

relatives of his rival for the post of governor in next year’s elections, as well as a group of journalists.