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Impunity reigns
SEVEN years after the wholesale slaughter of media personnel and other civilians in the infamous Maguindanao / Ampatuan massacre in 2009, impunity still reigns. Justice is still elusive for the 58 victims of that carnage. To this day, the massacre remains a monument to the state of impunity that still prevails.
The Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province is described as the bloodiest single incident in the history of Philippine media, where at least 58 people, including 32 journalists, were murdered. But of the 197 charged for the massacre, only a hundred are now in jail facing multiple murder charges; many are still at large.
Giving justice to the massacre victims was one of the campaign pitches of politicos seeking national posts in the recent elections. But despite this electoral posturing, the cases against the Ampatuans and their cohorts remain snail-paced.
Worse, paramilitary groups prevalent in Mindanao have not been disbanded. President Arroyo’s Executive Order 546 that allowed the creation of paramilitary groups to supposedly help the government in its anti-insurgency campaigns remains. Progressive groups believe EO 546 is the culprit behind the many human rights violations committed by rampaging militias, particularly in Mindanao. From the Ampatuan massacre to the killing of anti-large-scale mining advocate Fr. Pops Tentorio, to the spate of killings of lumads in Mindanao, paramilitary groups are wreaking havoc and terror among the people.
The lack of justice for the Ampatuan massacre and the government’s failure to provide an environment where the protection of human rights is enforced and guarded cultivates an atmosphere that is deadly not only for journalists but more so for ordinary people.
It is lamentable that the Ampatuan massacre trial has dragged on for seven years. The Ampatuan clan has used the whole arsenal of legal remedies available: from bail, petitioning the Department of Justice to review the case, to the Court of Appeals up to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, there are scores of bereaved family members waiting for that elusive justice. The long-drawn-out court proceedings are an injustice in itself.
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