ILOILO City – Members of Iloilo media led by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines – Iloilo Chapter and religious leaders gathered at Jaro district plaza yesterday on the 163rd birth anniversary of Ilonggo journalist and hero Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena and called for justice, a day before the court verdict on the Ampatuan Massacre case is promulgated.
An ecumenical prayer was said. It centered on hope that the 58 victims of the November 2009 massacre would get justice.
The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed live media coverage of the promulgation which is expected to start at 9 a.m. today inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, Metro Manila.
“Pulo na ka tuig pero wala pa naangkon ang katarungan gani amon ginapangayo. Amay…pun-a sang imo espiritu, ang espiritu sang kaalam, ang espiritu sang katarungan kag kamatuoran, agud ang hukom nga magahatag sang iya panatbat nahanungod sining tama ka lawig nga pagbista sang kaso matagaan sang katarungan nga magahalin lamang sa imo,” prayed Monsignor Meliton Oso, director, Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center.
With Oso were Fr. Joevy Publico of Iglesia Filipina Independiente; and Pastor Jec Dan Borlado of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches.
The prayer was fittingly said in front of the statue of Lopez Jaena, a journalist and one of the pillars of the Propaganda Movement against Spain during the Philippine Revolution. Thirty-two of the 58 people killed in the Ampatuan massacre were journalists.
The massacre occurred on the morning of Nov. 23, 2009 in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao, Mindanao. While the 58 victims were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, they were kidnapped and killed.
Mangudadatu was then challenging Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., son of then incumbent Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and member of one of Mindanao’s leading Muslim political clans, in the 2010 national elections.
The people killed included Mangudadatu’s wife, his two sisters, 32 journalists, lawyers, aides, and motorists who were witnesses or were mistakenly identified as part of the convoy.
There were a total of 197 accused in the massacre. Of these, 103 were charged with multiple murder, including prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr., Zaldy Ampatuan (governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, who was allowed to post bail three years ago.
Meanwhile, Andal Ampatuan Sr. died in detention on July 17, 2015 due to a liver ailment.
Nestor Burgos, national director of NUJP, said even if these accused would be found guilty, justice won’t be complete because 80 other suspects are still at large, many of them members of the Ampatuan clan./PN
