Seven years since 58 people, including 32 journalists, were slaughtered in what has been infamously called “Ampatuan Massacre” or “Maguindanao Massacre,” not one of the 197 accused have been found guilty.
Four of the accused have since died, including the suspected mastermind, then Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. Of the 193 remaining accused, including 28 bearing the name Ampatuan, only 112 are in detention while 81 others have not ever been arrested at all! On the seventh year of the bloodiest election-related violence in the country and the worst attack on media men ever, the score remains lopsided in favor of injustice and impunity: 58 dead, 7 years, 0 justice.
Former President Benigno S. Aquino Jr. promised during the presidential campaign to prosecute those responsible for the brutal and brazen massacre, but the entire six years of his term passed without even a single man being convicted of the dastardly crime. And in all those six Aquino years and in the last months of the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was believed to be the benefactor of the Ampatuan clan of Maguindanao, several witnesses were gunned down and none of their killers have been arrested, much less convicted!
That means 81 of the massacre suspects are still out there, roaming around to possibly kill other prospective witnesses. With the current climate of impunity in the country, they can always kill those witnesses and have the bodies tagged with the cardboard that says they’re drug pushers or users, and get away with more murders.
To remind us of what happened on that dark day, November 23, 2009, let me quote the narrative of party list Rep. Harry Roque, who was a lawyer for the family of one of the victims, in his privilege speech last Wednesday in the House of Representatives:
“Exactly seven years ago today, an entourage of 58 persons aboard a convoy of cars and vans were stopped by armed men at a police checkpoint in Karuan, Ampatuan, Maguindanao. They were then herded to a remote hill in Sitio Masalay a few kilometers away.
“When they reached the forlorn hill, the 58 captives met a gruesome death in the hands of a blood-thirsty band led by then Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., scion and namesake of the state-backed local despot, Andal Ampatuan Sr., who, in his time, ruled Maguindanao with an iron fist.
“Of the 58 victims, 32 were journalists and media workers; the journalists and media workers joined the convoy to cover an entourage of women relatives of then Buluan town vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu and led by his wife Genalyn.
“They were on their way to the Commission on Election’s office in Shariff Aguak to file the vice mayor’s certificate of candidacy for provincial governor.
“It was a grisly end for the convoy, put to a finis by the private army of strongman Andal Ampatuan Sr. whose son and namesake, “Datu Unsay” Andal Jr., was also vying for the post and did not want to see a rival to the post in Mangudadatu.
“Most of the victims were thrown into nearby pits earlier dug ostensibly for the purpose by a backhoe owned by the provincial government of Maguindanao. When police investigators finally reached the scene many hours later, they also found buried with some the victims in one of the pits a couple of cars from the ill-fated convoy.
“Apparently, there had not been enough time for the murderous band to bury everything — a few bullet-riddled vans belonging to the convoy still stood near the pits, their doors open, mute witnesses to a carnage that could only have happened because the Arroyo administration helped maintain and arm a warlord family for its own political convenience.”
Year after year on the day of the massacre, November 23, journalists and relatives of the victims light candles in the hope that it would move the government to give priority to the resolution of the case and, therefore, show that amid the darkness, the light of justice would eventually prevail.
The Supreme Court reported last year that as of Nov. 23, 2015, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court had “already heard a total of 178 witnesses (93 prosecution witnesses, 27 defense witnesses and 58 private complainants), which left us wondering how many more witnesses the court needed before it could make a decision.
Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te also said the court was at that point wrapping up hearings on the bail petition of primary suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. It took the court 5-1/2 years to hear the bail petition? By any standard of justice, that was really slow.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (Ifex), a Montreal-based network of 104 organizations campaigning for freedom of expression in 65 countries, said last year that the “glacial pace of the [legal] proceedings” of the massacre case was contributing to the “ingrained culture of impunity” in the country. Such a culture of impunity “not only denies justice to the victims of this [massacre] case” but also sows fear in society, hence “muzzles the media and promotes self-censorship,” it added.
The reason that the culture of impunity continues is because nothing has been done to make the wheels of justice run faster. The culture of impunity will continue to cast a dark shadow over the country unless the government shows its resolve to arrest crime suspects and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and in the fastest time possible. Finding justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre would be a good start.
But the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte can’t even show interest in investigating the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug users and pushers, how can it have the political will to resolve the Maguindanao Massacre? With the lead lawyer of the Ampatuan clan in the massacre trial, Salvador Panelo, having been appointed as presidential legal counsel, doubts have been raised as to whether the Maguindanao Massacre victims will finally get justice soon.
It’s up to Duterte to prove critics and doubters wrong.
(valabelgas@aol.com)