ILOILO City – The massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province on Nov. 23, 2009 was considered the worst election-related violence and journalist killings in the country. It left 58 civilians dead, 32 of them journalists.
Yesterday, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Iloilo Chapter marked the ninth anniversary of what is now known as the Maguindanao massacre with calls for vigilance and defence of press freedom.
A candle-lighting ceremony was held at Plazoleta Gay in the City Proper together with human rights alliance Karapatan-Panay.
“Thirty-two of our colleagues were killed nine years ago. While we reiterate our call for justice, we are also calling on our colleagues and the public to be more vigilant than ever and defend press freedom,” said NUJP-Iloilo president Elyrose Naorbe.
The mass media is threatened under the current administration while social networking sites have been propagating fake news, Naorbe added.
Members of the Fourth Estate must stand united against intimidation and continue to be truth-tellers, he stressed.
The case against massacre principal accused Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. and co-accused inched closer to a conclusion this month following the formal offer of evidence by the defense before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court handling the case.
The massacre victims were on their way to accompany the filing of a certificate of candidacy (for Maguindanao) governor for Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, when they were abducted and killed.
Mangudadatu was challenging Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., son of the then incumbent Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.
Aside from the journalists, among those killed were Mangudadatu’s wife, two sisters, lawyers, aides, and even motorists.
The NUJP-National Chapter, meanwhile, said one would expect justice to be swift in coming for a crime that literally shocked the world.
However, the group added that the Justice department of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo chose to file what legal experts then called as “case designed to fail”, charging more than 190 persons instead of concentrating first on the principal suspects, key members of the Ampatuan clan, thus ensuring that the prosecution would stretch on for years.
“The most optimistic opinion on when the earliest conviction could be expected was 10 years. A year short of that prediction, it is but right for the victims’ families, tired of the extremely slow pace of the trial, to shout ‘Justice Now’ and ‘Convict Ampatuan,’” according to NUJP.
The group noted that this year’s observance had the families of both non-media and media victims coming together to remember and honor their loved ones and, together, demand the justice they have long been deprived of, signalling their impatience.
“While we are heartened by Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra’s statement that a conviction may, at last, be forthcoming, we also hope this does not signal any intervention by the executive branch that could lead to a miscarriage of justice,” NUJP further said.
The journalists’ union further stressed that while a closure to this tragedy is most welcome, it should not in any way detract from the State’s continued accountability for its continued failure to bring an end to the threats and attacks against journalists and to give justice to the more than 100 other victims of media killings since 1986./PN
