Justice

By Christian Edu B. Villegas
(Vol. XXVII No. 18, Editorial Cartoon)

Justice

Days ago, while the whole Negros Oriental State University (NORSU) system was in the thick of preparation for its 82nd Founders Week Celebration, the whole Filipino nation was shocked with the news on the brutal killing of 64 persons (as of November 28), that include the wife of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, his two sisters, lawyers, relatives, supporters, and some 31 media practitioners. The victims of the gruesome killings were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood at the grassy hill of Barangay Salman in nearby Ampatuan town of Maguindanao .

Dubbed as the most spine-tingling massacre ever to happen in Philippine history, the news tore the hearts of all media practitioners and the people in the world because the most wicked killings did not only include innocent civilian supporters of the Mangudadatu clan but also 31 journalists – 31 innocent public servants who had nothing to do with the political rivalry between the Ampatuan and Mangudadatu clans, but were just there to chronicle the filing of the certificate of candidacy of Esmael for governor, through his wife, sisters, and lawyers.

What took place was an unimaginable crime that befell in the land of promise. The perpetrators were like demons and beasts. It was the most evil political and media carnage ever to have been perpetrated in the Philippines.

Circumstantial evidences are pointing to Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan’s son, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., as the principal suspect in the gruesome massacre. He surrendered to the government, and appeared to have been handled with kid gloves and is now held under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation. The state prosecutors have found sufficient evidence to recommend the filing of multiple murder charges against Andal Jr., among others cases.

But the question is: Why is it that the Arroyo administration seemed hesitant to use an iron hand in dealing with the suspects?

The Arroyo administration at first publicly offered, in what appeared to be sincere condolences to the families of the victims – condemning the carnage in the highest sense – and vowed to hail the perpetrators to the bar of justice. However, what have been said and promised has not been satisfactorily done.

It is noted that the Ampatuan clan was primarily instrumental in giving the late Fernando Poe Jr., who was very popular among Muslims in Mindanao, a zero vote in many towns in Maguindanao in the 2004 elections against Arroyo. In the 2007 senatorial election, the candidates of PGMA took an unbelievable 12-0 victory against the opposition in Maguindanao.

Obviously, PGMA owes a lot from the Ampatuans. In her statement published in Philippine Daily Inquirer, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said, “I don’t think the President’s friendship with Ampatuans will be severed… Just because they are in this situation doesn’t mean we will turn our backs on them… It doesn’t mean that they are no longer our friends, if ever they indeed committed the crime.”

Fajardo’s statement is enough to explain everything. It goes with the statement of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzales who urged the government to go slow in arresting the suspected mass murderers. “If we use the iron hand on them, they might fight back… We should take precautions. These are not ordinary people,” Gonzales warned.

By these statements, it appears that the Ampatuans are extraordinary people by almost any measure. They control almost everything in the town and province of Maguindanao. They control the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. And worst, they have that clout to influence Malacañang, which had to be pushed by public opinion from both ends of the globe to act sensibly.

The outraged media people, media organizations, local and foreign institutions, are calling for immediate action from the government. The killings are way beyond every man’s thoughts and are extremely outrageous. The perpetrators are animals, not humans. The doers of this barbaric massacre must not be tolerated and should not go unpunished – even if they are administration’s allies, even if they are powerful. After all, nobody is above the law. The victims should be given justice and their deaths must not turn in vain, like other political scandals which were gradually forgotten with the change of time.
Justice should be served.