Kin of Maguindanao massacre victims hopeful for guilty verdict by early 2019

MAGUINDANAO, Philippies — The families of victims of the vaunted November 23, Maguindanao massacre are now anxiously looking forward to the conviction by early 2019 of its perpetrators.

The optimism was bolstered by the visit on Thursday to the massacre memorial in Barangay Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao of Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar and Undersecretary Joel Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, or PTFoMS.

They separately told Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who met them there, the possibility of a judicial promulgation on the case by first quarter of 2019.

Andanar and Egco toured the site where 58 people, 32 of them journalists, were killed nine years ago by gunmen led by Andal Ampatuan Jr., then mayor of Datu Unsay town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The incident virtually shook the nation to its core and revealed how clans in Maguindanao and other parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, particularly Sulu, rely on private armies keeping military-type assault rifles, grenade launchers, machineguns and mortars to perpetuate political power.

Andanar and Egco separately told Mangudadatu, who is now in his third and last term as governor, that there could be a court ruling on the case by early 2019.

“We are confident of that,” Egco told Mangudadatu in the presence of reporters.

Andanar said President Rodrigo Duterte wants a final resolution of the case by next year too.

“We are hoping for that. Hopefully justice will be served,” Andanar told Mangudadatu and his relatives during a short meeting at Barangay Masalay on Thursday afternoon.

Andanar, Egco and the governor prayed together at the scene of the massacre, the country’s worst election-related violence ever, after their brief talk on recent developments on the litigation of the culprits by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

“We are happy with the latest developments on the case. We are thankful to Secretary Andanar and Undersecretary Egco for coming over to personally relay to us the good news on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Mangudadatu said.

Andanar was the first ever presidential communications staff under the Office of the President to visit the massacre memorial, according to the governor.

“We shall be forever grateful to President Duterte,” Mangudadatu said.

Aida Dela Cruz-Agad, a senior staff of the Philippine Information Agency in Region 12, said the families of the journalists killed in the massacre were elated, after learning from social media early on, about the possible conviction soon of its masterminds.

“They have been waiting, wishing for that,” she said.

Most of the journalists killed in the massacre were from local media outfits in the cities of Tacurong, General Santos and Koronadal, all in Region 12.

Siblings of the governor, among them Ibrahim, the former mayor of their hometown, Buluan, and Khadafe, a member of ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Assembly, were also present in the informal meeting of Andanar, Egco and Mangudadatu at Barangay Masalay.

Mangudadatu lost a wife, Genalyn, two sisters and several other relatives in the carnage, masterminded by leaders of Maguindanao’s then ruling Ampatuan clan who ruled the province with absolute intolerance for political opposition.

The victims were on their way to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak town to file for Mangudadatu, then vice mayor of Buluan, his certificate of candidacy for governor of the province in preparation for the May 2010 local elections.

They were flagged down by militiamen employed by the Ampatuans near a roadside para-military detachment along the Isulan-Cotabato Highway in Barangay Masalay, herded to a hill nearby where they were executed gangland style using assault rifles and machineguns.

The Ampatuan clan was to anoint Andal Jr. as its candidate for governor of Maguindanao during the May 2010 elections. Clan leaders did not want Mangudadatu, a blue-blooded Moro leader and scion of Maguindanao’s noble Rajah Buayan ancestry, to contest his candidacy for the gubernatorial post of the province.