GENERAL SANTOS CITY â At the wake, sixty-nine-year-old Maura Montaño remembered that the night before her daughter Marife âNeneng" Montaño joined the ill-fated convoy in Maguindanao, she had a word with her daughter yet again about her chosen profession. âI pleaded with my daughter to leave media work and opt for a quiet life," 'Nay Maura said. But so unlike her, the journalist simply kept her peace and did not say a word to her mother. That was the last time 'Nay Maura would see her daughter alive. A single mother to two children, aged 16 and 6, Neneng Montaño was one of 30 journalists confirmed to have died in the Nov. 23 massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. There could be as many as four more missing. Except for the General Santos City-based four-man team from UNTV, a television network with offices in Manila, the slain journalists all worked for community media, often small-budget operations run by idealists. Neneng Montaño was one of them. She was the 44-year-old editor of the bilingual newsweekly Saksi Mindanaoan, a fledgling four-page publication that, all told, was no older than 12 issues. Neneng and her mother had countless conversations about her work, but Neneng would argue vehemently against the idea of shifting careers. âShe would say quiet office work doesnât sit well with her. Neneng would say she was meant to be a journalist and that was that," 'Nay Maura said. On Friday, after consulting with her family, 'Nay Maura appointed lawyers from the Center for International Law (CenterLaw) to begin what may well be a long quest for justice for her daughter. The Montaños are one of four families who have engaged CenterLaw in filing cases against the perpetrators of what is now considered the single most devastating attack on journalists in modern history. All four signed documents appointing the centerâs lawyers and consenting to further forensic examination of the remains of their loved ones, if need be. But most of the families the center has had consultations with are hesitant. With the suspected mastermind, Andal Ampatuan Jr. a scion of one of the most influential and feared clans in the country, it is not difficult to understand why. The Ampatuans are also said to have helped deliver the electoral victory of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2004, cementing an alliance between the clan and the administration. âTi sir, hindi bala kami mabutang sa peligro sini (Sir, donât you think doing this would place us in perilâs way)?" the wife of one of the victims of the carnage asked in Hiligaynon during a consultation with the center. âBasi bala delikado man kami sini (You know, it might be dangerous for us to do this)." She told the center she will have to consult first with the other members of her husbandâs family whether to pursue the case against those who killed her husband. Her sentiments were echoed by more than half of the 12 families consulted by the center so far. There is, of course, the necessary requirements of grief, especially where a loved one died an unspeakable death. Their fears may not be unfounded. Indeed, in the recent past, so much blood has been spilled in political rivalries in the region, without doubt exacerbated by rido, or revenge killings practiced in Mindanao by big and well-armed families. The victims' surviving loved ones saw that it took the national government three days to act on the massacre; and when it did, authorities seemed to give the principal suspect VIP treatment, not once being handcuffed. The survivors are aware that both the police and the military suspiciously made themselves scarce during the crucial hours when the slaughter could have been prevented, despite requests for security escorts from the Mangudadatus.