Floral tributes were paid to the victims of the 2009 Ampatuan Massacre in Mindanao of southern Philippines on Nov. 20. (Photo: National Union of Journalists of the Philippines)
Activists and families of 58 victims, including 32 journalists, have decried the denial of “full justice” as they marked the 14th anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre in southern Philippines’ Maguindanao province.
“Despite 14 years since the tragic events of Nov. 23, 2009, the killers remain at large and justice continues to be denied,” the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a statement.
The IFJ called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “to end the suffering for the families of those killed” in what is dubbed as the world’s single deadliest attack against journalists.
The victims were shot and buried in a mass grave after their convoy was attacked while traveling to Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao to register the gubernatorial candidacy documents for Buluan town vice mayor Esmail Mangudadatu.
“Despite sustained international and national pressure and countless campaigns, the families of the murdered civilians still await full justice from a protracted, legal process and a failure of investigators to locate all the accused,” the IFJ statement said.
As the years went by, media advocates documented how several key prosecution witnesses “have been murdered, some of the accused have died… 83 of more than 200 suspects still remain at large,” it added
In December 2019, a Quezon City Regional Trial Court convicted Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr., his brothers Andal Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy Ampatuan, besides 24 others guilty beyond reasonable doubt on 57 counts of murder.
The three brothers, identified as the key perpetrators of the bloody massacre, were given the maximum sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
“To date, only 44 of the 200 massacre suspects have been successfully convicted,” IFJ said.
The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said 14 years after the killings the country “remains a dangerous place to be a journalist.”
“Although the 2009 massacre has faded from the headlines, the media community has not forgotten and we join in calling for an end to impunity for crimes against journalists,” it said.
According to NUJP, suspects remain unaccounted for and convictions were only handed down for 57 of the 58 murders.
Critically, the court failed to consider the murder of photojournalist Reynaldo Momay, whose remains have yet to be found.
Investigators, however, included him on the list of victims based on his dentures that were found at the scene of the killings.
The Freedom for Media, Freedom for All coalition, which includes the Philippine Press Institute, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, MindaNews, and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, held a memorial for the massacre victims on Nov. 20.
“The December 2019 decision convicting 28 of the principal accused of murder and 15 others as accessories is only partial justice until the convictions are final and the families receive compensation for the cruel loss of their loved ones,” said Emily Lopez, president of Justice NOW!, the organization of families of the victims of the massacre.
Grace Morales, who lost her husband and sister in the attack, hoped that the massacre “will not happen again because it is not easy to lose a loved one.”
“We also hope that the compensation associated with the decision in 2019 will be granted to us who are left behind. Once again, we call for the Ampatuan Massacre case to end once and for all,” Morales said.
On Nov. 5 this year, Misamis Occidental radio anchor Juan Jumalon 57, also known as DJ Johnny Walker, became the latest victim of media killing.
He was killed in an attack inside his studio on Nov. 5. The gory crime was witnessed by people watching his program on social media.
Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be killed since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office last June.
Press freedom watchdogs frequently label the Philippines as one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists where 199 journalists have been killed since 1986.
Paul Gutierrez, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), called on the journalists who were victims of threats and harassment “to formalize their complaints with the proper authority or inform the PTFoMS directly of such incident to make appropriate action and assistance.”
The task force has only documented over 10 reports, all of which have been acted upon immediately, Gutierrez said.
