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arious media and progressive groups staged condemnation rallies all across the Philippines on Wednesday, denouncing the delay in the Ampatuan massacre case.
In Manila, members of the College Editos Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) released white balloons into the air at the Don Chino Roces (former Mendiola) Bridge in Manila to commemorate the seventh month of the massacre, which is considered the country’s worst election-related violence.
At least 57 people, including 32 journalists, were killed by alleged armed men of the powerful Ampatuan clan, who supposedly wanted to prevent the victims from filing the certificate of candidacy of now Governor-elect Esmael Mangudadatu, a known Ampatuan rival.
Radio dzBB said the CEGP also wanted the balloons to serve as a reminder of how the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo failed to solve the gruesome murder case.
Almost 200 people, some of them members of the powerful clan including patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., are facing multiple murder charges.
But hearings have been postponed since a Quezon City court hearing the case got tangled in a string of motions filed by both camps.
The prosecution said the defense's motions were merely dilatory tactics, an accusation the Ampatuans repeatedly denied.
In Cotabato province, local journalists and militant protesters took to the streets to hold a marathon for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre.
The participants also tied black ribbons to pine trees along the national highway as a symbol of mourning.
“It's sad to note that during President Arroyo’s term of office, the ballooning cases of extra judicial killings were recorded which made the Philippines the most dangerous place for media practitioners," said Ruby Padilla-Sison, the provincial chair of Gabriela in North Cotabato.
Since Mrs. Arroyo failed the victims and families of the killings, they are already pinning their hopes for justice to President-elect Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III, the protesters said.
“If we cannot see rays of hope in the Arroyo government, we hope that the new administration of President Simeon Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino-III will prioritize the solving of extra judicial killings, including those killed in the Maguindanao massacre," said Merlyn Aznar, the Mindanao Press Corps president.
Later in the day, journalists, progressive groups, and militant students from the University of Southern Mindanao will hold a protest march toward the city plaza, bringing a black coffin.
The coffin symbolized the death of justice for the victims of extra-judicial killings under Mrs. Arroyo's term, Malu Cadeliña-Manar, president of National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in Kidapawan City.
Of the 137 journalists slain in the Philippines since democracy was restored in 1986, 104 were killed under the Arroyo administration, the NUJP said.
NUJP's figures still do not include the two journalists recently killed respectively on June 15 and 16, in Davao Oriental and Ilocos Norte provinces.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director General Edgardo Acuña, of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said at a press briefing in Malacañang Wednesday that families of the victims should no longer blame the police for the sluggish pace of the multiple murder case.
Acuña was quoted in a separate radio dzBB report as saying the PNP has already done its part in filing charges against people, including PNP personnel, suspected to be responsible for the carnage.
He said that the PNP has even gone beyond focusing on the Maguindanao massacre, adding it has likewise confiscated over 200 unlicensed firearms and dismantled at least 42 private armed groups in the country since the carnage happened last year. - with a report from Williamor Magbanua, RJAB Jr./LBG, GMANews.TV
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