JUSTICE! Eight years after ‘Maguindanao massacre,’ justice still elusive for families of victims'

COTABATO CITY – Families of 58 people brutally killed in Maguindanao province continue to cry for justice eight years after 200 gunmen, believed to be followers of the Ampatuan clan, massacred the victims, 32 of them media workers. 

The massacre occurred in the village of Salman in Ampatuan town on November 23, 2009 while supporters and family members of Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu were heading to the office of the Commission on Elections to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao and challenging Governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr. who was the patriarch of a clan that long held power in the province. 

Mangudadatu invited journalists to cover the event and also to protect his group against alleged threats by the Ampatuans. Mangudadatu himself did not go with the convoy for fear that he would be ambushed and instead sent his wife and sisters and supporters to represent him. 

True enough, a large group of armed men, many of them militias and policemen, taking orders from the alleged mastermind, Andal, flagged down the convoy on the highway of Shariff Aguak town, the clan’s stronghold, and held all in the group at gunpoint and brought the victims to a remote location in Ampatuan town and raked them all with automatic weapons.

Andal’s son and namesake, Andal, Jr., then mayor of Datu Unsay town, and another son, Zaldy Ampatuan, then the regional governor, and several other clan members along with dozens more are now in jail after being implicated in the massacre. The accused have all denied the charges against them. And many witnesses to the gruesome crime had been killed while others were allegedly bribed to prevent them from testifying.

The slow progress of the cases is also putting a stress – both psychologically and spiritually – to the families of those who perished in the massacre. 

Murders

Media watchdog National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said justice remains as elusive as it was 8 years ago and that journalists continue to be murdered with impunity with 178 murdered since 1986 - the last five killed in the year and a half since President Rodrigo Duterte took office. 

It said of the 198 massacre suspects, only 115 have been arrested and 112 have been arraigned and that four had died in the course of the proceedings, including primary suspect Andal Sr. 

Out of the 112, NUJP said 70 were allowed by the court to post bail, including Andal Sr.'s youngest son, Sajid Islam, who was freed in 2015 after posting P11.6-million bail. This number also included 17 police officers who were allowed by the court to post bail because of weak evidence. 

As of July 11, 2017, it said 102 of the accused remain in detention, including main suspects Andal Jr.; Zaldy and also Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay, then the police chief of the 15th Regional Mobile Group that was conducting the checkpoint when the convoy was stopped by gunmen. 

“We have been informed that with only three more principal accused in the massacre trial still to present their witnesses, it would be reasonable to hope for a resolution by next year. We do hope so and pray it will be a triumph for justice. However, the numbers do not offer too much reason for optimism.” 

“But as we have pointed out before, notwithstanding its shocking magnitude, the Ampatuan massacre was not an aberration but an inevitable result of the rotten system of governance that afflicts our country. It is a governance of expediency by which all presidents, bar none, court the loyalty of the warlords, crime lords and corrupt clans who infest Philippine politics and rule their bailiwicks like fiefdoms, because this is the only way they can rule effectively,” NUJP said. 

Impunity

Lawyer Jose Begil Jr, of the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao, said the massacre could potentially go down in history as one of the most long-drawn high profile cases, despite the Justice Department’s declaration that the case is now on its tail end. 

He recalled that the late Senator Joker Arroyo had predicted that the trial could take 200 years with nearly 200 defendants and 300 witnesses. “Additionally, prosecution witnesses have either been killed under questionable circumstances, are missing, or were intimidated,” Begil said.

“Eight years have passed, justice is nowhere in sight,” Begil said, adding, the culture of impunity, still pervades the Duterte government. 

“The Arroyo government was responsible for this impunity against journalists, lawyers, and other human rights defenders. The Aquino government failed to deliver on its promise to attain justice for the victims. And now, the Duterte government has simply expanded this culture of impunity, this time not only against journalists but to drug offenders, and more viciously against human rights activists,” Begil said. 

Letter to Pope

In 2014, family members of journalists who perished in the massacre had written a letter addressed to Pope Francis and read by Grace Morales during the 5th commemoration of the killings in Ampatuan town. 

Grace is the widow of Rosell Morales and sister of Marites Cablitas, circulation manager and publisher of News Focus, who was among those killed. 

The letter reads: “Kami ay mga asawa, anak, magulang at kapatid ng mga pinaslang sa bayan ng Ampatuan, Maguindanao noong ika -23 ng Nobyembre 2009. Ang aming mga mahal sa buhay ay kasama sa masaker kung saan 58 ang nasawi kabilang ang 32 mamahayag. 

Taun-taon ay bumabalik kami rito sa lugar na ito kung saan ang dugo nila ay kumalat nang pagbabarilin sila sa utos ng mga Ampatuan. Ngunit hindi lamang sila pinagbabaril. Ibinaon ang mahigit kalahati sa kanila kasama ang mga sasakyan sa pamamagitan ng backhoe na ginamit sa paggawa ng hukay at pagpitpit sa mga sasakyan upang mas madaling mapagkasya ang mga ito at ang mga bangkay sa hukay. 

Limang taon na ang nakaraan mula nang maganap ito. Limang taon na mula nang ang mga anak namin ay nawalan ng mga tatay o nanay na dapat ay gumagabay sa kanilang paglaki. Limang taon na mula nang ang mga asawa sa amin ay nawalan ng katuwang sa pagtataguyod ng aming tahanan. Limang taon na nang mawalan kami ng mga kapatid na naging kalaro sa paglaki at  ngayo’y puntod na lamang na dinadalaw sa sementeryo. 

Hindi po perpekto ang aming mga kamag-anak. Nakakagawa rin po sila ng mga kasalanan noong sila’y nabubuhay at nakakalimot paminsan-minsan sa mga banal na utos ng Panginoon. Subalit ang patayin sila ng ganun na lamang at ibaon ng parang mga hayop ay hindi katanggap-tanggap.

Dito sa lugar na ito kung saan umalingawngaw ang putok mula sa mga baril na kumitil sa kanilang buhay…dito sa lugar na ito kung saan nagsumamo silang huwag patayin…dito sa lugar na ito kung saan nawala ang pag-asa ng 58 pamilya.

Nagsusumamo kami sa iyo, mahal na Santo Papa, na tulungan kaming mabigyan ng hustisya. Alam po naming hindi na maibabalik ang buhay ng aming mga mahal sa buhay. Subalit naniniwala kaming ang Diyos ay isang Diyos na may pagmamahal sa katulad naming maliliit at walang kakayahang ipagtanggol ang sarili. 

Bigyan nyo po kami ng lakas ng loob upang ipagpatuloy ang paghahanap ng katarungan. Bigyan nyo po kami ng sapat na lakas para maitawid ang pang-araw araw na pangangailangan ng aming pamilya. Bigyan nyo po kami ng linaw ng isip para magawa ang mga tamang desisyon.   Kami’y mga simpleng tao, wala sa kapangyarihan at walang kayamanan. 

Subalit sa inyong tulong, dasal at pagpapala, umaasa kaming magkakaroon ng lakas para ipaglaban ang katarungan.Tinitingnan namin ang inyong darating na pagdalaw sa Enero bilang isang simbolo ng pagmamahal ng Diyos sa mga katulad naming naghahanap ng hustisya. 

Kaya dito sa lugar na ito, limang taon makaraan ang masaker, hinihiling namin na kami’y iyong ipagdasal at sa kahit anong paraang maari, bilang pinakamataas na pinuno ng Simbahang Katoliko, ay samahan kami sa paglalakbay tungo sa katarungan.       

Gumagalang,

Mga asawa, anak, kapatid at magulang ng mga pinaslang na media sa Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)

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