(Two parts) by Carolyn O. Arguillas Mindanews and VERA Files Part I SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao—Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu will take his oath of office as the…
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Tag: Maguindanao massacre
Last Sunday, the media community remembered that six months ago, 57 people were brutally killed by members of then ruling Ampatuan family. At least 30…
Tomorrow,Sunday,will be the sixth month of the Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, 30 of them journalists.
Justice still eludes the victims and their families. The perpetrators of the heinous crime, members of the powerful Ampatuan family, are in jail but attempts to evade accountability persist.
To maintain the momentum of the quest for justice for the victims, a media outfit hosts the commemoration every 23rd of the month. This Sunday, Malaya Business Insight, leads in the prayers and renewal of our demand for accountability. It will be held in front of the office of Malaya on Railroad corner 20th streets in Port Area, Manila at 6 p.m.
Department of Justice Secretary Alberto Agra on Wednesday reversed his April 16 resolution absolving two leaders of the Ampatuan clan from the November 23 Maguindanao massacre.
Statement of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
The reversal of the resolution is, doubtless, a welcome development. No thanks, however, to Agra.
Indeed, if anything, all credit for the reversal should go to the families of the victims, their lawyers, the media community, and not least, the state prosecutors and the people in general who rightly railed against the obscenity of what could have been nothing but another ham-fisted attempt by this administration to let political expediency trump the rule of law, as it has done throughout its nine years of existence.
It was clear, as the prosecutors themselves pointed out, that there was no way Agra’s original resolution clearing the two Ampatuans could have been based on his supposed appreciation of the voluminous evidence a mere day after meeting with some of the victims’ relatives to assure them that he had yet to make up his mind.
The immediate and rousing anger that greeted his original decision were a clear enough signal that we would not be robbed of justice for this grievous crime, not just against the press, for whom the Ampatuan massacre was the single worst attack in history, but against the Filipino people and humanity.
If anything, he and his masters really had no choice. Anything short of reversal would have undoubtedly unleashed a firestorm that would sweep them away.
In a 30-page resolution, Agra said he changed his decision after assessing new evidence, including a new witness who testified that suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and acting vice governor of Maguindanao, Datu Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan, participated in a meeting the night before the massacre where the decision was taken to stop the Mangudadatus from filing a certificate of candidacy.
Philippines makes it to the list
By Laurent Houssay
Agence France-Presse
PARIS—Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders named Monday the world’s 40 worst “predators of the press” including politicians, religious leaders and militias to mark World Press Freedom Day.
“They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law”, the Paris-based watchdog RSF said. “These predators of press freedom have the power to censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and, in the worst cases, murder journalists”.
Seventeen presidents and several heads of government are on the list, including China’s Hu Jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Cuba’s Raoul Castro and Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
New entrants on the annually-updated list of “predators” include Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
While everybody was busy moving heaven and earth to prevent Justice Alberto Agra from clearing Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, and his uncle Akmad of complicity in the Nov 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao, the government panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Muslim rebel group are moving towards signing agreement that officials say would lead to peace in Mindanao but others are concerned could spark another round of war.
Are the two issues connected? After all, didn’t the government arm and coddle the Ampatuans as vigilantes against the MILF?
We hope Agra’s shocking decision of exonerating the two Ampatuans from the crime so shocking it earned for the Philippines the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous country for journalists was not meant to make us too pre-occupied that they would be able to finally sign an agreement that would result in the dismemberment of the country.
In a 10-paragraph joint statement that Ambassador Rafael Seguis, chair of the Philippine government panel and Mohagher Iqbal, MILF panel chair at the conclusion of the 18th round of exploratory talks last Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, there’s a one sentence that is causing a lot of concern to many who are worried that Arroyo would try again what she failed to do last year with the MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement- Ancestral Domain), which is to create a Bangsamoro state within the Philippine state.
Kalimutan na ni Gilbert Remulla ang kanyang ambisyon na magiging senador.
Sa kanyang pagbisita sa mga Ampatuan sa Davao noong isang buwan, lumabas na may pagkukulang sa kanyang values o moralidad. Dating journalist pa naman siya.
April 22 -Tumawag sa akin si Gilbert at nasaktan daw siya sa aking sinulat.Sana man lang daw tinanong ko siya bago ko siya binanatan. Sabi niya hindi pa niya ngayon masabi ang detalye ngunit may kinalaman sa “security” ang kanyang pakipagkita sa mga Ampatuan sa Davao.
Sira rin dito si Nacionalista party presidential candidate Manny Villar. Dapat ipakita niya na kaya niya magdisiplina ng kasama na nagkamali. Kung hindi, pareho na sila babagsak.
Si Remulla kasi bayaw ni Sigfrid Fortun, abogado ng mga Ampatuan. Ngayon kasi malakas pa rin ang mga Ampatuan sa Maguindanao. Marami nga sa mga kamag-anak nila ang tumatakbo itong eleksyun at malamang mananalo.
It’s so obscene, I can’t find the right words to express my outrage over the gall of Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to clear Zaldy Ampatuan, suspended governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, and his uncle Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan Sr. of complicity in the most heinous crime this country has experienced and shocked even the a violence-weary world.
It’s also obscene hearing Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar describe as “an obscenity” the public’s accusations about Malacañang’s role in absolving the two Ampatuans of responsibility in the Nov 23 Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, 32 of them journalists.
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is right. “.. the real and current obscenity in this country is the fact that the alleged president for whom Olivar speaks has become central to the major issues that beset this country, most particularly that of whether there will be a change in its putrid leadership rather than more of the same despite the 2010 elections.
by Dona Pazzibugan and Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Zaldy Ampatuan, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and his cousin Akmad Ampatuan, the former acting vice governor of Maguindanao, will be dropped from the list of those accused, Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said Saturday.
The two men were initially alleged to be among the key planners of the massacre that drew condemnation from all over the world.
Agra said he had ordered state prosecutors to exclude Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan from the information sheet filed before the court, and that the prosecutors would formally inform Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes that they were not charging the two with murder.
Asked if the two would now be released, Agra said: “It will depend on the judge.”
Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan were among the family members transferred from detention in General Santos City and Davao City to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, on Friday night.
The dismissal by a Quezon City judge of the rebellion case against Maguindanao governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr, his son, ARMM governor Zaldy Ampatuan and 22 others should strengthen the case filed by relatives of journalists who were among those killed in the November 23 massacre before the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission (AICHR).
This week, three of the petitioners, Glen Salaysay, son of Cotabato City journalist Napoleon Salaysay, Noemi Parcon, wife of Koronadal City journalist Joel Parcon, and Feulen Sumagang, cousin of UNTV reporter Julito Evardo, were in Jakarta, where the AICHR is based, to follow up on their suit accompanied by their lawyer, Harry Roque of the CenterLaw Philippines.
They were most disgusted to find out that the Arroyo government has taken the stand that the Maguindanao massacre that has shocked the world and earned for the Philippines the distinction of being the most dangerous place for members of media is “a domestic legal issue” and international human rights bodies have no business meddling in.