A son of a media practitioner in Davao City holds a placard calling on President Benigno Aquino III to deliver justice to all victims of the Ampatuan massacre during a solidarity protest action held in November 2012. (davaotoday.com file photo by Ace R. Morandante)
DAVAO CITY – During the commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day, May 3, families of the victims of Ampatuan massacre slammed Pres. Benigno Aquino III for failing to convict the perpetrators of the crime before his term ends.
“Where is your promise that before your term ends, there will be ‘conviction’ on the case of the Ampatuan massacre?” said the families of the victims in an open letter to Pres. Aquino.
“You only have few weeks on your office, can we still expect justice from the current administration? You promised us and today we demand [answers] on that promise,” the letter added.
The Ampatuan Massacre occurred on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao where 58 individuals, 32 of them media practitioners, where brutally killed while they were in a convoy to file a certificate of candidacy of then gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangundadatu in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Members of the family of Ampatuan and 100 others were charged with 58 counts of murder
On October 2015, Sajid Islam Uy Ampatuan who was one of the accused, was temporarily freed on bail after paying P11.6 million-bail bond, while the other appeals for bail were denied.
The families of the Ampatuan Massacre victims’ said, “we are fighting up to the best of our ability, but we do not have the capacity to know the progress of the case, especially inside the court. We never became complacent in the course of the case because we know how they act and how powerful is our enemy.”
“We have no idea on what is happening with the case because no one is updating us, one thing that is promised by the Department of Justice. To know the course of the case is very important in each of us and to convict all of those who killed our love ones,” the families said.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that “the continued fudging over by the administration of President Benigno Aquino III of the issue of media killings contributes to this atmosphere of impunity.”
From 1990 to 2015, there were 146 media killings in the country or an average of six journalists killed per year. There were 31 journalists and media workers who were killed under the Aquino administration.
Whatever the figures of killed journalists, “the issue is the persistence of these extra-judicial killings and the fact that only about 10 of these cases have led to convictions of perpetrators, although no mastermind has been pinned down,” NUJP said.
The group also expressed their concern over the safety and security of other journalists who are based in provinces and areas dubbed as “election hotspots”.
“We understand that they are under extremely dangerous situations especially in their effort to uncover the poll manipulations which to this day has refused to leave our electoral system despite the adoption of automated vote counting,” NUJP added.
The group urged the Filipino people to “join them in vigilance because press freedom does not belong to the press but to you, in the service of your right to know.” (davaotoday.com)
