Ampatuan (Philippines), Dec 10 - When President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed the restive southern Philippine province of Maguindanao under martial law, Freddie Solinap was at a loss on how to report on the impact of the controversial decree.

Solinap, publisher of a five-year-old weekly newspaper, lost five of his seven staff two weeks earlier when a total of 57 people were brutally massacred in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao, 930 km south of Manila.