CHR chief: Massacre highlights Arroyo's disservice to media

The Maguindanao massacre showed how the administration under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had disregarded the media. "The Maguindanao massacre underscores and magnifies the disservice the previous [administration] has done to the media people who are just going about their work in a situation where the electoral process was supposed to be undertaken," said Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales, a former teacher and Akbayan party-list representative. In a press conference at the CHR main office in Quezon City conducted right after a candle-lighting rite in remembrance of the carnage exactly one year ago, Rosales also said the massacre on November 23, 2009 was a "barbaric" act that violated "fair play and human rights." Rosales and the rest of the CHR staff members held a candle-lighting ceremony for the 57 massacre victims, including 32 media workers. "The social cost of the tragedy including the fallout from the massacre itself is staggering," said Rosales, who earlier told GMANews.TV that the high-profile case would be among her priorities. She also noted "with serious concerns" the supposed inability of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to fully round up and neutralize private armed groups in the Philippines. She said her agency would stand firm in helping "break the climate of fear and impunity" not only in Maguindanao and other provinces adversely affected by militia groups. Rosales said she flew to Maguindanao earlier and witnessed how villagers in the impoverished southern Philippine province "continued to have fear in their eyes." She said the CHR was supporting the recommendations made by the Human Rights Watch in its latest report, which also blamed the Arroyo administration for the power and influence amassed by the Ampatuans in the span of two decades. Both Arroyo (now a Pampanga congresswoman) and Andal Jr. have denied accusations hurled against them. GMANews.TV tried reaching Mrs. Arroyo's spokesperson Elena Bautista-Horn for comment but she has yet to respond. The Zeñarosa Commission was created under the Arroyo administration and was tasked to investigate on the private armies and ensure their dismantling. — LBG/JV, GMANews.TV