Countdown to Maguindanao massacre anniversary launched

MANILA, Philippines - The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) launched Friday a countdown to the fourth anniversary of the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre, an incident earlier dubbed as the single worst incident for journalists in history.

 â€œWe want to bring it back to the public consciousness. Four years after, many issues have come and gone. It is the duty of the media to make sure that the public never forgets,” said NUJP chairperson Rowena Paraan during the candle lighting and wreath-offering ceremony at the Boy Scouts Circle in Quezon City.

Among the activities lined up for the fourth anniversary of the massacre include a visit to the massacre site in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao, and the formation of a human chain along Roxas Boulevard in Manila on Nov. 22.

Representatives of the International Federation of Journalists are also expected to arrive in the country in time for the commemoration on Nov. 23.

Fifty-eight people, including at least 32 media practitioners, died in the massacre. The media practitioners were part of a convoy led by the wife of then Buluan vice mayor and now Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Accompanied by journalists, lawyers, aides and family members who were mostly female, Mangudadatu’s wife Genalyn was on her way to file the certificate of candidacy of her husband, who was set to challenge a scion of the Ampatuan clan for the Maguindanao gubernatorial post.

While en route to the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak, the group was stopped and brutally murdered – some of them raped – by alleged members of the Ampatuan clan’s private army.

A total of 197 people, including members of the Ampatuan clan, were initially charged for the incident.

Almost four years after the start of the court proceedings, the special court handling the case has yet to rule on the bail petition filed by some 60 suspects, including members of the Ampatuan clan.

The prosecution panel is set to submit its formal offer of exhibits in opposition to the bail petition on the initial 57 counts of murder filed against the accused. It is set to submit this week its formal offer on the 58th murder case.

Court records show that 104 of the 108 arrested suspects are still not arraigned for the initial 57 counts of murder. Two of them were Talembo Masukat and Sahid Guiamadil, who both claim that their apprehension were cases of mistaken identities.

The case against Police Officer 1 Johann Draper was already dismissed for lack of merit, while suspect Sukarno Badal was allowed to become a state witness.