By FRANCK DICK ROSETE
Bulatlat.com
CAGAYAN DE ORO — One-and-a-half decades have passed but the families of Ampatuan Massacre victims remain seeking full justice. A family member admitted that she is losing hope due to the case’s lack of progress even if it is widely considered the worst attack on journalists in Philippine history.
“I can’t accept until now. It has been 15 years, but there is still no further action. I lost my trust in the government,” said Catherine Nuñez whose son Victor, a UNTV reporter, was one of the 32 media workers and 26 others killed in the bloody massacre.
She was among those who attended an event commemorating the Ampatuan Massacre’s 15th year held in Cagayan de Oro on Saturday, Nov. 23. The victims’ families and supporters expressed frustration as they have not been updated since December 2019 when there was a partial conviction of several accused, including key orchestrators from the Ampatuan clan.
Read: Ampatuan massacre suspect’s furlough angers journalists, rights advocates
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)-Cagayan de Oro Chapter and other media organizations joined the families in their continuing quest for justice as only 44 were convicted around five years ago and over 80 perpetrators remain at large.
“Commemorating the brutal tragedy serves as our way to remind the government of its unfinished obligation,” said Sheila Mae Butlig, NUJP Cagayan de Oro vice chairperson.
Lawyer Beverly Musni of the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) said that the guilty verdict of the principals and some accomplices is not enough to appease the families’ griefs, calling for an end to the continuing culture of impunity.
“This culture of impunity imperils the exercise of legal and media professions in the country,” Musni said, describing the Ampatuan massacre as the bloody opening salvo of the 2010 elections.
On Nov. 23, 2009, the 58 victims were killed after they were ambushed while traveling to Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao for the filing of the candidacy certificate of former Buluan town vice mayor Esmail ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu, challenging Andal Ampatuan Jr., one of the convicted, in the gubernatorial race.
Read: Remembering Ampatuan Massacre and the reigning impunity
Several of the victims were buried in mass graves in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao (now Maguindanao del Sur).
The Philippines will hold midterm elections and the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in May 2025. Another family member said she remembers the gruesome killings whenever elections get nearer.
“I hope the government would recall that there were 58 people who were killed in 2009, and they would provide swift resolution to the case,” said Grace Morales, wife of Rosell Morales and sister of Marites Cablitas, two of the media practitioners killed.
Full justice would be served if there is conviction of all perpetrators, a public apology from them, and the compensation ordered by a regional court, said Emily Lopez, chairperson of Justice Now, a group composed of families of Ampatuan massacre victims, in a video message posted by NUJP.
Despite the lack of development, the mobilization of various groups pushed Nuñez, as well as other families, to continue the fight. Some of the relatives have recently joined related events conducted in different areas of the country to remember the most tragic election-related violence in the country.
Read: Children of Ampatuan massacre victims sing for justice
The NUJP, together with other press freedom and human rights advocates, vowed to support families’ calls, joining them in urging the Philippine government to continue its efforts to deliver full justice by arresting the remaining suspects.
“We will never stop remembering the lives lost in the Ampatuan Massacre. This is also our way to stress our calls to stop any forms of attacks against journalists, standing in solidarity with our colleagues who have been harassed, red-tagged, and threatened,” NUJP Cagayan de Oro said.
Meanwhile in Manila, NUJP, along with fellow media workers and campus journalists, also gathered and held a protest action a few blocks away from the historic Mendiola bridge as they were blocked by the police.
In a statement, the NUJP said that conditions that would allow violence against journalists remain. “These conditions also mean that many of our colleagues reporting from the regions do so fully aware of the pressure that local officials can put on them to tone down stories or to leave them unreported.”
The NUJP has documented 199 media workers in the country who have been killed since 1986. (JJE, DAA)
