EDITORIAL - Long wait for justice

The nation marks the first anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre today with heirs of the 57 victims wondering how long they will have to wait for justice. The man on trial for personally leading the mass killing, Andal Ampatuan Jr., is being held without bail, as well as his father Andal Senior and several of their relatives. About 200 people, most of them members of the Ampatuans’ security forces, face trial for the atrocity, but hundreds of others are still at large, a number of them still with the capability to murder and intimidate witnesses.

After numerous delays, the trial finally got underway two months ago. A defense lawyer predicted that the case could drag on for 10 years; a senator had a more pessimistic prediction, saying it could last 200 years. Even 10 years is a long time for those seeking justice for one of the most brutal crimes in the nation’s history.

On Tuesday last week justice officials and the trial court judge handling the massacre, Jocelyn Solis Reyes, agreed to hear the case two times a week, with at least two witnesses presented at each trial. The so-called case management conference included prosecutors and the defense. Although this is a welcome development, defense lawyers can still slow down the trial in the course of working for the interests of 200 clients. The murders and disappearances of key witnesses can also further delay justice.

Defining the participation and culpability of each of the accused will take time, but those who played the biggest role should not be too tough to pin down. Participants in the massacre who have turned state witness as well as employees in the Ampatuan household have averred that the clan planned the massacre as part of a feud with political rivals who are also their relatives, the Mangudadatus. State witnesses have said Andal Jr. personally shot dead several of the 57 victims, ignoring pleas for mercy.

The victims’ heirs may never see all the murderers and their accomplices, including the security forces that herded the victims’ convoy to their death on a desolate hilltop in Ampatuan town, brought to justice. But pinning down the plotters and principal perpetrators should not be an impossible task. The wait for justice need not be interminable.