Soft heart for policemen implicated in Maguindanao massacre?Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, who is running for senator under the United Nationalist Alliance ticket, is lobbying for the dropping of a number of policemen from the list of the accused in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre where 58 persons were killed, a source closely working in the case, said.
Thirty-two of those killed were media workers.
Next month, Nov. 29, the media community and those who value the role of a free press in democracy, will mark the third anniversary of the tragedy that earned for the Philippines the notorious tag of being one of the three most dangerous places in the world for journalists. We share the ignominious label with war-torn countries Iraq and Somalia.
Three years have passed and the victims have not yet been rendered justice.
And here’s Cojuangco, aunt of the President Aquino, lobbying for those involved in the massacre.
Joint statement of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists Inc. and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on the Expiry of the Freeze Order on the Assets of the Ampatuans
2 December 2011
Today, December 2, 2011, the six-month freeze order the Court of Appeals issued – on petition of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) – on the 597 bank accounts, 142 firearms, 132 motor vehicles, and 113 houses and lots in the names of 27 members of the Ampatuan clan and their associates expired.
We have also learned that it was only yesterday, December 1, when the AMLC filed through the Office of the Solicitor General, a petition for civil forfeiture with a prayer for a new freeze order with the Manila regional trial court. As of the close of office hours, we have not received confirmation from the OSG, the AMLC, or the trial court if the freeze order, or provisional asset protection order (PAPO), had been issued.
We view with great alarm the unwarranted delay and apparent lack of attention and negligence that the AMLC and the OSG had accorded this case.
Marking the second year of the Maguindanao massacre, journalists pledged to resist any attempt to trample a person’s right to life and free expression.
Gloria Arroyo with Andal Sr and Zaldy Ampatuan. Malalim ang pinagsamahan.Today, we will be at the historic Mendiola Bridge (now renamed Don Chino Roces Bridge) to remind President Aquino that the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre are still waiting for “justice” that he promised last July.
A tweet by Federico Pascual is shared by many who lament the slow pace of the trial: “If only PNoy could show the same speed & single-mindedness in prosecuting the plotters & killers in 2-year-old Ampatuan masssacre.”
In a statement the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said “Two years after the gruesome crime, 103 of the 196 suspects remain at large and only two of the principal suspects have been arraigned. The case remains snagged on hearings on petitions for bail of the accused.”
In keeping with the President’s longstanding position that the cause of justice and sustained reforms in ARMM require live coverage of the Maguindanao Massacre Trial, Secretary Herminio Coloma of the PCOO has instructed NBN4 to undertake a gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial.
We should never forget this.Binabawi ko na ang aking palakpak sa desisyun ng Supreme Court na pinapayagan ang TV na magkaroon ng live broadcast ng trial ng Maguindanao masaker.
Sa dami ng kundisyunes na binigay ng Supreme Court para makapag-cover ng live ang TV, Malabo na rin mangyayari.
Ayun sa desisyun na sinulat ni Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales na sinang-ayunan naman ng lahat na justices, isang TV camera lang ang papayagan sa loob ng korte kung saan doon kukuha na ng “feed” ang ibang TV networks.
Walang problema sa kundisyun na ito. Nagawa na ito sa ibang kaso katulad ng kay dating Pangulong Joseph Estrada.
Hindi na ako magtataka kung sa kahuli-hulihan, papalabasin ng mga abogado nina Ampatuan na ang 58 na namatay noong Nob. 23, 2009 sa Maguindanao ay nag-suicide.
At siyempre, kung nag mass suicide nga ang mga ito, walang kasalanan si Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. at ang kanyang ama na si Andal Sr., ang kanyang kapatid na si Zaldy, dating gubernador ng Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. Hindi malayo na maabswelto na sila.
Matunog ngayon ang usap-usapan na tumataginting na P200 milyon ang pinakawalan na naman daw ng mga Ampatuan at mukhang makamtan na rin ni Zaldy ang kaniyang kalayaan na binigay ni dating Justice Secretary Alberto Agra at naudlot lamang dahil sa lakas ng galit ng publiko. Ngunit habang tumatagal, dumadami ang isyu na pinagka-abalahan ng mga tao, baka makuha na niya kasama na rin ng kanyang ama. Si Andal Jr siguro matagal-tagal pa ngunit doon na rin ang direksyun nun.
The latest Pulse Asia survey showed that the Maguindanao massacre, where 58 persons were massacred by Andal Ampatuan, Jr. and his companions, one year ago, is in the consciousness of 98 percent of the Filipinos.
However, Pulse Asia said, less than half (48 percent) of those they surveyed last month said that they are following the developments of the trial.
Click here (VERA Files) for Carol Arguillas’ coverage of the commemoration in Mindanao. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was there.
Click here (VERA Files) for pictorial of the commemoration in Metro Manila.
Pulse Asia’s findings make the request of news organizations and relatives of the victims to allow live coverage of the trial compelling.
As the days wear on, with so many issues and problems cropping up, interest on the carnage that earned for the Philippines the dubious distinction of the world’s most dangerous place for journalists (32 of the victims were members of media), would wane. That would be a cause of concern because tyranny thrives when the people are not vigilant.
Update: Today at 2pm, photo-journalists will have their head shaved in front of the Department of Justice on Padre Faura st., to commemorate the darkest day not only in Philippine journalism one year ago.
The day of impunityNov. 23 last year, Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr of the town named after him,Datu Unsay in the province of Maguindanao, accompanied by relatives and hired goons waylaid a convoy led by the wife of his political opponent, Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of the town of Buluan to a secluded, hilly interior and massacred them.
Mangudadatu’s wife was supposed to file the certificate of candidacy of her husband against Ampatuan Jr for the position of governor.
From Ateneo School of Government:
From the Ateneo School of Government:To give way to the event in Maguindanao commemorating the Ampatuan Massacre where key policy actors will be attending, the public presentation of the PODER study on government response to election-related violence scheduled on 23 November 2010, 8:00am – 1:00pm, is postponed to a later date, which will soon be announced.
Fifty-seven bodies were recovered from the area which was turned into a mammoth graveyard by a backhoe that belonged to the provincial government. Of the 57, 31 were journalists, who were supposed to cover Mangudadatu’s filing of certificate of candidacy.
Fifty-eight actually were killed, 32 of them journalists. The body of Midland Review staff Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay , who was with the convoy, remains missing up to this day. Only his dentures were recovered from the killing site.
Saliao (from ABS-CBN online) Fearless and direct to the point. This was how people described the testimony of former Ampatuan helper Lakmudin “Laks” Saliao against his former employers in the first trial day of the Maguindanao massacre case on Wednesday (September 8).
Saliao was an aide of Andal Ampatuan Sr..
Saliao testified that the Ampatuan family met twice before the massacre, where they discussed how to stop Esmael Mangudadatu from filing his certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao.
Saliao said Ampatuan Sr. asked his family if they agreed with the plan to kill all the people in the Mangudadatu convoy. Saliao recalled that people laughed upon hearing the Ampatuan patriarch’s question, and then agreed to the plan.
Jessie in a safehouse, taken last MarchCenterlaw’s Harry Roque said the death of Suwaib Uphamb, one of the gunmen in the November 23 carnage who wanted to be a key witness but was turned away by the government, should bear on the conscience of outgoing justice Secretary Alberto Agra.
Uphamb, whom media christened “Jessie,” was killed last June 14 in Parang, Maguindanao.
“I put the blame for his death to Acting Secretary Agra and his principal, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who refused to accord any protection to Jessie. There is blood in Agra and Mrs. Arroyo’s hands. May they forever by hunted by the souls of Jessie and the rest of the victims of the massacre,” the straight talking Roque said.
Roque has every right to be outraged. He was the one who sought protection for Jessie at the DOJ.
