EDITORIAL - A backhoe operator’s story

Among the grisliest scenes in the 2009 massacre in Maguindanao was the retrieval of the victims from their shallow mass grave, hurriedly dug in a bucolic hilltop in Ampatuan town. Several vehicles, mostly belonging to media establishments, were crushed, with the passengers inside, apparently by a backhoe that was found abandoned near the shallow grave. One by one each vehicle and corpse was pulled out, until 57 bodies were accounted for, with one missing.

It would take time before the death of a 58th victim was confirmed. And it is sure to take much longer to bring to justice those responsible for the worst case of election violence in this country. Today, nearly four years after the massacre, several of the nearly 200 accused have not yet been arraigned, while over a hundred suspects remain at large. Key witnesses have been murdered.

Even as gory details of the massacre trickled out, people believed the backhoe operator would have a good story to tell. But the operator went missing, and there were fears that he had been permanently silenced. In November last year, backhoe operator Bong Andal was arrested in North Cotabato. He asked that he be allowed to turn state witness against the Ampatuans, but prosecutors said there was no need for the testimony of someone indicted as a direct participant in the mass murder.

The other day, Andal went public with his story, providing details to GMA-7 News of what he claims he did on orders of the Ampatuan clan. The story may not be enough to sway prosecutors to grant his plea to turn state witness, but it should provide more leads to tighten the case against the accused perpetrators, particularly the principal players.

Andal’s story should also remind concerned parties that this case cannot drag on for 200 years, as some quarters have predicted. There are enough witnesses to pin down some of the principal accused. Seeing them convicted and sent to prison would be enough to show that there is justice in this country.