Nearly ten years ago in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao, 58 people were killed in what is regarded as the worst case of election-related violence and the bloodiest single-day attack on media workers in the Philippines.
Among the victims were family members of the Ampatuans’ political challenger, his supporters, and 32 journalists.
One hundred ninety-seven individuals have been charged in connection with the massacre. Among them are the principal accused Andal Jr., Zaldy and Sajid Ampatuan. The first two are in jail, while Sajid is out on bail and is currently serving as mayor of Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao. Their father, alleged mastermind Andal Ampatuan Sr., died in July 2015.
One of the main challenges of the case was the testimony of witnesses —as many as 357 submitted statements. Some of them were killed, and some withdrew because of “offers,” or of threats to their lives in the course of the protracted trial. Still, two key witnesses remained and stood by their accounts of what they saw and heard.
It was earlier announced that a verdict would be handed down by Branch 211 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court on November 20, or a few days before the November 23 anniversary of the massacre.
But now the Supreme Court has allowed the court’s request for 30 more days for the promulgation. Chief Justice Disodado Peralta, finding the request meritorious, said that the High Court understood Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes’ predicament, because “there are so many accused and there are so many victims in that case.”
Private prosecutor Nena Santos, who represents 38 of the 58 victims, is confident of the conviction of at least the principal accused. Even the Justice Secretary, Menardo Guevarra, believes the same.
Asked to comment on the additional 30 days of waiting, Santos said: “We have waited for 10 years. The 30 days is a short time to wait.”
It’s a short time, indeed, but one more day of waiting is one day longer in the quest for justice. The wait will only be given meaning if, finally in December, the court’s verdict tells us that impunity has no place in our country no matter how powerful, wealthy and well-connected the perpetrators are.
“If there will be no conviction, I am sorry to say that press freedom in the Philippines is dead,” Santos said. We would add to that: Anything less than a conviction would be a triumph of impunity.
The Ampatuan massacre rocked our belief in the both our sense of justice and the justice system to the core. Will that faith be restored, we wonder, or will the verdict tell us there are two kinds of justice in this country—one for the mighty, and one for the weak?
