IT’S NOT UFO LANDING. Practicing and campus journalists and others from multi sectoral groups from all over Central Luzon link arms around the Salakot, a landmark at the entrance to the former US Clark air force base in Angeles City, to mark the fourth year of the still unresolved Ampatuan massacre that killer 58 persons, including 32 journalists. They urged the resolution of the case by 2016.
PHOTO BY DING CERVANTES
ANGELES CITY- Journalists from all over Central Luzon observed last Friday the fourth anniversary of the infamous Ampatuan massacre at the “Salakot” landmark near the main gate of the former US military base at Clark Freeport here with a demand for timetable and full media coverage of court hearings on the case.
The mediamen, led by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), were backed by campus writers and other representatives from multi-sectoral groups including fraternities, formed a human chain around the landmark which was built during the stay of the US military at Clark to highlight Philippine sovereignty, expressed lament over the slow pace in resolving the case.
“We call on the Supreme Court to delegate a special court exclusively for the Ampatuan massacre that can conduct daily hearings with full media coverage,” said NUJP-Pampanga chairman Ashley Manabat.
For his part, Fred Villareal, vice chair of the NUJP- Pampanga urged that the case be resolved by the end of Pres. Aquino’s term in 2016. Manabat noted that “it has been four years since 58 people, including 32 journalists, were brutally killed by a powerful clan in Maguindanao but not one has been convicted. The same is
true in other murders of mediamen in the country.”
“What is worse is that the culture of impunity seems to reign even more strongly even as we reel from the devastation of typhoon Yolanda,” he said. He noted that “the pork barrel scandal and reports of government neglect, politicking, lawlessness, continuing hunger in the devastated lands, and the fudging of the casualty count in the Visayas make for a richer ground for the culture of impunity.”
“Let us not forget,” he appealed to the media, even as they vowed to continue marking the anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre even after the case is resolved.
