Conviction will put closure to Maguindanao massacre — kin of victims

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — The conviction of the culprits in the Nov. 23, 2009 “Maguindanao massacre” will put closure to the gruesome atrocity, relatives of the people killed in the incident said Saturday.

The families of the massacre victims commemorated in Barangay Masalay in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on Saturday the 10th anniversary of the massacre in a simple gathering led by Rep. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Mangudadatu, governor of Maguindanao for three terms that spanned from June 30, 2010 to June 30, 2019, lost a wife and two sisters in the carnage.

The attack left 58 people dead, 32 of them members of the media.

Saturday’s event, held at Sitio Salman in Barangay Masalay, scene of the massacre, was attended by prosecution lawyer Nena Santos, Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and Joel Egco, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security.

Egco said the PTFoMS is optimistic of the conviction next month of the suspects in the massacre.

He urged relatives of the massacre victims to patiently wait for the final result of the litigation of the case by Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

Mangudadatu said a final verdict on the case will put closure to the sensational politically-motivated murder of 58 people that shook the nation to its core.

Relatives of the journalists killed in the massacre told reporters that they can peacefully put everything to rest once the culprits, who belong to the once powerful Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao and cohorts, are convicted for their role in the killings.

The 58 massacre victims were in a convoy en route to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao of Mangudadatu, then vice mayor of Buluan, when gunmen led by Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. flagged them down, herded them to a hill in Sitio Salman in Barangay Masalay where they were killed one after another using assault rifles and 5.56 caliber K3 machineguns.

Ampatuan, most known as Datu Unsay, was their clan’s supposed candidate for governor of Maguindanao during the May 2010 elections.

Egco said President Rodrigo Duterte has been monitoring closely the developments in the prosecution of the massacre suspects since first day of his presidency.

“If you have waited for ten long years, you just need to be more patient. Surely there will be verdict month,” Egco said in a message while at the venue of the massacre anniversary program.