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Nearly all the massacred journalists worked for community media


GENERAL SANTOS CITY — At the wake, sixty-nine-year-old Maura Montaño remembered that the night before her daughter Marife “Neneng" Montaño joined the ill-fated convoy in Maguindanao, she had a word with her daughter yet again about her chosen profession. “I 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. “She would say quiet office work doesn’t 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 center’s 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. “Ti sir, hindi bala kami mabutang sa peligro sini (Sir, don’t you think doing this would place us in peril’s way)?" the wife of one of the victims of the carnage asked in Hiligaynon during a consultation with the center. “Basi 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 husband’s 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. Click here to view the larger version In search of a safe haven Lawyer Harry L. Roque Jr., Centerlaw chair, acknowledges that the security of the families of the victims is a big concern, especially when a credible United Nations organ has faulted the many unforgivable failings of the Department of Justice’s witness protection program. “The Alston Report did not mince words when it said one of the reasons why nobody is convicted in this country for impunity is that witnesses are afraid to testify in court," he said. “The state simply cannot protect the witnesses and their families." He was referring to a report made by Philip Alston, a well-respected Australian academic and UN rapporteur, who visited the Philippines in 2007 to investigate rampant extrajudicial killings in the country directed at political dissidents, lawyers and, yes, journalists. He also noted that the new rules for the Writ of Amparo issued by the Supreme Court remains hobbled by the lack of accredited sanctuaries or havens of protection for witnesses and survivors of human rights violations. “The idea is to strengthen the witness protection program of the state. The problem in the Philippines is that as has been noted by many credible national and international human rights organizations, it is the agents of the state themselves who commit atrocities against the citizen. Under the circumstances, it seems foolhardy to entrust to the State the task of providing a safe haven to the citizen," said Roque. He suggests that the Supreme Court issue guidelines for accrediting private institutions as sanctuaries. The suggestion comes across as official heresy from the point of view of public law and international law, but the Supreme Court’s decision to draft rules for the protection of citizens that allow for private persons and institutions to provide it in lieu of state agencies may well underscore how desperate the situation is—or just how little trust is now reposed by citizens in their own government, given its dismal human rights record. Last Thursday, state prosecutors began inquest proceedings against the principal suspect in the massacre, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the elder Ampatuan’s heir apparent to the gubernatorial post. Only the warring politicians and their lawyers were able to take part in the proceedings. The slain journalists’ grieving families did not have the time or the luxury to send lawyers to argue their case on their behalf at the inquest proceedings. On Friday, Justice Secretary Agnes Devenadera announced that her prosecutors had found probable cause against Ampatuan, who gave himself up to authorities three days after the incident. “He was giving instructions, he was there when the convoy was blocked, and he was among those who took part in the killings," the justice secretary said at a press conference. The scheduled filing on Friday of seven charges of murder against the politician with the regional trial court in Cotabato City, however, did not push through because of the Eid Al’adha holiday which runs till Monday. It is worth noting that the charges are only for seven murders—most likely of the members of the Mangudadatu clan who perished—when the casualty list counts 57 persons dead. Some news reports place the toll at 63. Body count Also Friday, CenterLaw confirmed the deaths of three more journalists in the massacre. These were Rubello Bataluna and Arnulfo “Benjie" Adolfo, both of whom are General Santos City correspondents of the newsweekly Gold Star, published in Cagayan De Oro City. The third journalist was Lindo Lupogan of the Davao City-based News Media Gazette. 30 journalists have now been confirmed to have died in the attack. One journalist—Reynaldo “Bebot" Momay of the Midland Courier based in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat—is still missing and is also presumed dead. Indeed, the attack exacted a heavy toll on community journalism in the region. Periodico Ini (This Periodical) a newsweekly that pioneered publishing in Hiligaynon in Koronadal City (formerly Marbel town) five years ago, lost nearly its entire staff—a complement of six persons—in the carnage. Only its 40-year-old editor-publisher Freddie E. Solinap was left to tend to the newsweekly. News organizations in at least five nearby towns lost a staff member or two. The Cagayan De Oro City-based Gold Star daily lost its two correspondents in General Santos City and another two correspondents in Koronadal City. An initial list CenterLaw put together from interviews with victims’ families and information provided by local journalists’ associations show that among those confirmed dead or declared missing were at least 27 journalists, although other news reports said that up to 37 journalists were on that ill-fated convoy. Ten of the journalists came from General Santos City; another 10 from Koronadal City; four from Tacurong City; two from Davao City, and one from Cotabato City. It is so much institutional history and memory lost that for many members of this closely knit community of local journalists, it is difficult just to begin to imagine what it will take to recover from its aftereffects. “It is painful just to think about it," said Rey G. Ombaña, agency manager for the Gold Star newspaper who also heads a press association in General Santos City. “You worked with these people, you swapped stories and jokes with them, covered events together with them—talked about your dreams for the future with them. And now your friends are all dead." The crime scene At 6 p.m. Wednesday, authorities declared an end to retrieval operations at the crime scene, following the withdrawal by the Sultan Kudarat provincial government of a backhoe it earlier lent for use in the operations. “Let’s not even talk about the propriety of using a backhoe to dig up the crime scene," said forensic doctor Ben Molino. “Until now, nobody really knows how many people perished in the massacre. Just because the backhoe has been withdrawn, authorities will now stop evidence gathering and recovery operations there—it doesn’t sound right to me." A veteran in his field, Molino was asked by CenterLaw to provide expert advice on forensic evidence gathering. He traveled to Koronadal town and observed autopsies conducted by government doctors on human remains recovered from the crime scene in Ampatuan town. Indeed, officers of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines who visited the crime scene were appalled to witness police Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO), assisted by government troops, use a backhoe to dig up the remains of victims allegedly buried by their killers in a newly-discovered grave in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town. The NUJP officials arrived just in time to see the backhoe’s claw unearth a woman’s bloodied and broken body. The forensic doctor has raised serious concerns about the manner in which police investigators had been gathering evidence in the massacre. “Their approach disturbed so much of the crime scene, to say the least," he said, again noting that the situation has been made doubly difficult by an acute lack of necessary forensic equipment and facilities. At a meeting Wednesday where Presidential Adviser for Mindanao Affairs Jesus Dureza gave assurances of government support to the families of the massacre victims, Dr. Molino pressed the government official to send additional government doctors to speed up the autopsies on the recovered human remains as well as cadaver bags for the recovery operations at the crime scene. The next day, two additional teams of forensic doctors and assistants arrived to augment government doctors doing the autopsies. The promised cadaver bags however did not materialize. But with two new teams helping out in the grim task, autopsy work on all the recovered human remains was sped up, with much of it done by Friday morning. (A former journalist, Romel Regalado Bagares is a lawyer who serves as Executive Director of the Center for International Law, a free speech advocacy group. The center is a member of the Southeast Asia Media Defense Network. This article also appeared on the VERA Files web site.) - HS/GMANews.TV

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