I’ll do as much as my true love
As any young girl may
I’ll sit and mourn all in his grave
For twelve months and a day
And when twelve months and a day passed
The ghost did rise and speak
Why sittest thou all on my grave
And will not let me sleep?
Go fetch me water from the dessert
And blood from out the stone
Go fetch me milk from a fair maid’s breast
That young man has never known
Three stanzas from The Unquiet Grave, a traditional religious folk song made popular by Joan Baez in the 1960s – and it pop in my mind as soon as I read late last week the grief of the family of Reynaldo Momay, a photographer of Midland Review, compounded by the fact that his name is yet to be included among the 57 people mercilessly killed in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao 12 months ago.
Reynafe Momay-Castillo, Momay’s daughter lamented her father was among the journalists who accompanied the convoy of the Mangudadatus in filing the certificate of candidacy in a bid to challenge the Ampatuans’ political reign in the province. Yet he still was not declared a victim of the massacre since he is officially still missing.
Castillo in newspaper interview said it pains her and their family every time they hear news reports mentioning that there are only 57 victims. Momay would have been 58th on the count had his remains been found.
The victims were murdered in a remote highway in the aforementioned town and most were buried with some of the vehicles they had been riding on in a huge but shallow pit dug using a backhoe, and some in haste had just been dumped in a grassland nearby.
So there are at the moment 57 counts of multiple murders filed against former Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. (at least two witnesses attest Ampatuan Jr. who led the operation shot and killed 40 of the victims) and other family kin accused of planning the massacre to prevent the Mangudadatu clan, some family members of who count among the victims, from challenging them in the last elections.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) Pampanga chapter together with other local media organizations, to wit: Pampanga Press Club, Society of Pampanga Columnists, Central Luzon Media Organization and Angeles City Press and Radio Clubs is slated for the day to hold a protest march and rally in front of the city hall of the City of San Fernando, and will banner the call:
“The mourning continues, the cry for justice goes on. Remember Ampatuan Massacre and other victims of violence against media!”
Its national center and other local unions all over the country are expected to do as much if not even more – 32 of the victims, by the way, are working journalists.
A news story says and I quote: “The victims are officially counted as 57, but for their families, the number is merely representative of individual lives of people they loved” and lost for that matter.
But for this column the 57, nay 58, will all be Unquiet Graves – both from within and from without.
From within the graves will be spirits wanting to rise and say ‘ … why just sit and not allow me to sleep? …
From without the graves will be cries for the orphans to ‘ … fetch water from the dessert… blood from out the stone… milk from a fair maid’s breast… that young man has never known…
All tall tasks to say the least, if not nearly impossible. But the justice the NUJP and all other well meaning groups seek goes beyond the boundaries of making Unsay Andal Ampatuan Jr. answerable for the heinous crime he had supposed to have lead and executed 12 months ago, or making Andal Ampatuan Sr. and other senior Ampatuans answerable for the heinous crime they had supposed to have masterminded 12 months ago.
The search for justice for the Ampatuan massacre goes broad and deep and up to the need to uproot the culture that from the past and up to the present breed not only Ampatuans but Mangudadatus as well which cements the hold to power by a very moneyed and very privileged few, from as low as the villages to as high as the palaces, to the detriment of a multitude less privileged few.
All these we have to shoulder and challenge head on, lest we live to have more… Unquiet Graves.
As any young girl may
I’ll sit and mourn all in his grave
For twelve months and a day
And when twelve months and a day passed
The ghost did rise and speak
Why sittest thou all on my grave
And will not let me sleep?
Go fetch me water from the dessert
And blood from out the stone
Go fetch me milk from a fair maid’s breast
That young man has never known
Three stanzas from The Unquiet Grave, a traditional religious folk song made popular by Joan Baez in the 1960s – and it pop in my mind as soon as I read late last week the grief of the family of Reynaldo Momay, a photographer of Midland Review, compounded by the fact that his name is yet to be included among the 57 people mercilessly killed in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao 12 months ago.
Reynafe Momay-Castillo, Momay’s daughter lamented her father was among the journalists who accompanied the convoy of the Mangudadatus in filing the certificate of candidacy in a bid to challenge the Ampatuans’ political reign in the province. Yet he still was not declared a victim of the massacre since he is officially still missing.
Castillo in newspaper interview said it pains her and their family every time they hear news reports mentioning that there are only 57 victims. Momay would have been 58th on the count had his remains been found.
The victims were murdered in a remote highway in the aforementioned town and most were buried with some of the vehicles they had been riding on in a huge but shallow pit dug using a backhoe, and some in haste had just been dumped in a grassland nearby.
So there are at the moment 57 counts of multiple murders filed against former Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. (at least two witnesses attest Ampatuan Jr. who led the operation shot and killed 40 of the victims) and other family kin accused of planning the massacre to prevent the Mangudadatu clan, some family members of who count among the victims, from challenging them in the last elections.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) Pampanga chapter together with other local media organizations, to wit: Pampanga Press Club, Society of Pampanga Columnists, Central Luzon Media Organization and Angeles City Press and Radio Clubs is slated for the day to hold a protest march and rally in front of the city hall of the City of San Fernando, and will banner the call:
“The mourning continues, the cry for justice goes on. Remember Ampatuan Massacre and other victims of violence against media!”
Its national center and other local unions all over the country are expected to do as much if not even more – 32 of the victims, by the way, are working journalists.
A news story says and I quote: “The victims are officially counted as 57, but for their families, the number is merely representative of individual lives of people they loved” and lost for that matter.
But for this column the 57, nay 58, will all be Unquiet Graves – both from within and from without.
From within the graves will be spirits wanting to rise and say ‘ … why just sit and not allow me to sleep? …
From without the graves will be cries for the orphans to ‘ … fetch water from the dessert… blood from out the stone… milk from a fair maid’s breast… that young man has never known…
All tall tasks to say the least, if not nearly impossible. But the justice the NUJP and all other well meaning groups seek goes beyond the boundaries of making Unsay Andal Ampatuan Jr. answerable for the heinous crime he had supposed to have lead and executed 12 months ago, or making Andal Ampatuan Sr. and other senior Ampatuans answerable for the heinous crime they had supposed to have masterminded 12 months ago.
The search for justice for the Ampatuan massacre goes broad and deep and up to the need to uproot the culture that from the past and up to the present breed not only Ampatuans but Mangudadatus as well which cements the hold to power by a very moneyed and very privileged few, from as low as the villages to as high as the palaces, to the detriment of a multitude less privileged few.
All these we have to shoulder and challenge head on, lest we live to have more… Unquiet Graves.
