AFTER two long years, due to the pandemic travel restrictions, families and supporters of the victims of the bloodiest election-related violence recorded in the history of the Philippines went to the memorial site to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre.
Yesterday, members of Justice Now and a small contingent of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines celebrated a mass and sprinkled holy water on the markers in Maguindanao. Justice Now is an organization for relatives of the victims of the massacre.
“We commemorate this gruesome attack on our colleagues and on democracy because the victims’ families are still waiting for justice,” said Jonathan de Santos, NUJP national chairman.
On its Facebook page, NUJP said the memorial site of the massacre victims had been overgrown with weeds.
“Families and the media are here to show that they and the worst election-related attack have not been forgotten nearly 13 years later,” the NUJP post reads in part.
After 13 years, the remains of photojournalist Reynaldo Momay have yet to be found and his official inclusion and recognition as a victim of the Ampatuan Massacre have yet to be declared by the courts.
To date, only 44 people ― 28 of whom are primary accused ― have been convicted out of the 197 originally charged with 58 counts of murder. Some 83 accused of being accessories to the crime are still at large.
“Forty-four people have been convicted over the massacre but some of the convictions are still under appeal and the families continue to wait for justice for those they lost on that day,” the NUJP post reads in part.
Although there have been convictions on the people involved in the massacre, the case is currently on appeal.
“As the Justice Now families have also said in past commemorations, our community's call for justice is for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre as well as for all victims of media killings in the Philippines,” de Santos said.
