SPECIAL REPORT
ELEVEN years after the gruesome murder of 58 persons, including 32 members of the media, the family of a photo journalist who was among those who were killed in the Maguindanao Massacre, has yet to get justice – not even loose change representing indemnity.
Except for the late Reynaldo Momay, a photo journalist, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes ordered convicted murderers to pay hundreds of thousands to millions of pesos in damages and loss of earning capacity to the heirs of each of the victims.
Momay’s death did not even earn merit because his body was never found. In fact, the court acquitted all the accused over Momay’s death due to reasonable doubt and dismissed his family’s claim for damages.
Inability to Compel Indemnity
Interestingly, not even the court order compelled the convicted persons to indemnify the families of those who died exactly 11 years ago.
Around a hundred armed men abducted 58 persons, including 32 members of the legitimate working press, wife, sisters, relatives, and supporters of Maguindanao gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangudadatu who were on their way to file his candidacy, forced them up a remote hill, and shot them using high-powered firearms.
The media men accompanied Mangudadatu’s camp to cover the candidacy filing, as part of their work.
Highly-placed sources said that even after the conviction of eight out of the 48 accused of the cold-blooded carnage, families of the slain journalists still have not got any of what the court aptly referred to as indemnity.
Dumping Charges Amid Precedent
According to lawyer Nena Santos, who forms part of the legal team representing the victims in court, said that of the 48 Maguindanao massacre suspects included in a second wave of complaints filed with the Department of Justice, 40 were dismissed.
Santos said two Ampatuans and six others were charged before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 — the same court that last year found a number of members of the influential Ampatuan clan and many police officers guilty of multiple murder over the 2009 massacre.
Expressing extreme disappointment over DOJ’s dismissal of charges against 40 respondents, Santos said only three paragraphs in the prosecutors’ resolution explained the legal basis for the dismissal.
“The fight is not yet over,” Santos said Monday.
Missing Conviction of Other Ampatuans
Judge Solis-Reyes convicted dozens of people, including former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan, Anwar Ampatuan Sr., Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan Jr., and Anwar Sajid “Ulo” Ampatuan, and several police officers, in December 2019.
They were declared guilty of multiple murder for the massacre of 57 [yes just 57 because the court refused to recognize Momay’s case on the ground that his cadaver has yet been found] people in Maguindanao in 2009 that is known as an unprecedented case of election-related violence and an exceptionally brutal attack on the press.
Along with Manny, Mohades, and Misuari Ampatuan, several police officers and other personalities, they were sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or up to 40 years of imprisonment, without parole.
Fourteen police officers and Bong Andal, who operated the backhoe in the infamous massacre, were sentenced to six to 10 years in prison after they were found to have acted as accessories to the crime.
Clan patriarch Andal Sr. was also among the accused but he died of liver cancer while in detention in 2015.
Culprits Acquitted or Still At-Large
Interestingly, four members of the Ampatuan political clan included in the charge sheet, managed to get off the hook. They are Akmad alias “Tato,” Sajid Islam, Jonathan, Jimmy. These four little-known Ampatuans, along with dozens of other individuals were acquitted because of the prosecutors’ failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
They were ordered released from jail unless they are being detained for other lawful causes.
Aside from acquittals, the families of the slain journalists, said that even after 11 years, they can’t afford to relax adding that they are still living in fear because many of the accused remains at large and continues to wield power in the southern region.