Journalists and media workers all over the Philippines will observe the second anniversary of the massacre of 32 of
their colleagues in the hands of a powerful warlord clan with protest actions that will run across from north in the
country down south where families of the media victims are scheduled to visit the graveyard where their loved ones were
hurriedly buried two years ago.
Overseas Filipino journalists in the US and Canada will also join the protest action.
On November 23, 2009, journalists and media workers joined a convoy of six vehicles bound for the capital town of
Maguindanao to cover the filing of certificate of candidacy of then Buluan town vice mayor Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu but
were stopped along the highway by a group of heavily armed police and militiamen under the command and order of Datu
Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.
The journalists, along with 26 others, were led into a secluded village some 2.5 kilometers from the highway where they
were mercilessly gunned down.
Mangudadatu lost his wife, two sisters and several relatives and supporters in the incident.
Six motorists who were caught in the checkpoint manned by Ampatuans were also killed.
The massacre sparked international outrage and widespread condemnation.
Several international media groups eventually declared November 23 as the International Day to End Impunity.
Ampatuan Jr was arrested several days after the massacre and was tagged by several witnesses as one of the masterminds
behind the gruesome killings.
Also later charged for the gruesome murders were his father and namesake Andal Sr., brothers Zaldy and Bahnarin and at
least 20 other members of the Ampatuan family.
More than 160 others, mostly members of the police force in the province, militiamen and private bodyguards of the
Ampatuans were also included in the charged sheet but 103 of them are still at large.
Of the prominent Ampatuans already in government custody, only Andal Jr has been arraigned, however.
Rowena Paraan, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), said family members of
media workers slain in the massacre have opted to visit the site a day earlier than the anniversary to be able to
observe the death of their loved ones in silence and in private.
Last year, during the first anniversary of the massacre, thousands flocked into the massacre site.
It was a shoulder to shoulder scene with families of the victims unable to share and have private moments due to the
hustling of the crowd that overflowed the hill where Andal Jr was said to have personally overseen and led the murders.
Families of the 14 General Santos City-based journalists and media workers who were among those killed will hold a
special mass at the common grave of their departed at Forest Lake Gensan on November 23.
The NUJP is currently holding a two-day conference on media safety as media killings have not stopped under the Aquino
government in General Santos City.
The NUJP said 146 members of the Philippine media have been slain since 1986.
It will spearhead the anniversary protests all over the country on Wednesday.
Protest rallies and candle lightings in major cities and town centers have been scheduled for tomorrow.
Paraan said the NUJP is closely monitoring the murder cases filed against the Ampatuans and the rest of the suspects
named in the charge sheet.
Several media organizations in the country are deploring the slow pace of the murder trial.
ENDS