Tearful wives, mother tell judge details from Maguindanao massacre

School supervisor Noemi Parcon recalled she was in panic that afternoon of Nov. 23, 2009 as she kept calling the mobile phone of her husband, journalist Joel Parcon. She had just heard on the news about an electoral convoy that had been flagged down in Ampatuan town and that the people in it were killed. She wanted to know if her husband, who was editor and publisher of the Koronadal City-based Prontiera News, was among them. Each time she dialed her husband’s number almost non-stop for three hours, all she could hear on the other end of the line was a voice message saying the number could not be reached. Until… around 7 p.m., someone finally picked up. "Patay na ang Papa mo (Your Papa is dead)," someone said on the other end of the line before it was cut. Since then, she was not able to establish contact with her husband’s number ever again. Those were just some of the harrowing details a tearful Noemi told Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes on Thursday when she took the witness stand seeking damages for her loss and suffering. It was also the first time in more than a year since trial began in January 2010 that relatives of the slain journalists in the Maguindanao massacre were finally given the chance to speak in court about the killings of their loved ones in a remote grassy hill in Ampatuan town. Noemi said the last few hours before she was finally able to see her husband's body were unbearable. "I cannot swallow food. I didn't have the appetite to eat." At the funeral parlor When Joel's remains finally arrived at the funeral parlor, where she had been waiting, Noemi said she finally broke down. "Ang skull niya ay (His skull was) broken. Ang eyes niya ay (His eyes were) bulging. Puro (Full of) gunshot wounds... His hair was nowhere to be found. It really pains me. I know everybody will die but not this way," she said in between sobs. For Catherine Nuñez, it would be the day after the massacre when she would find out that her son, UNTV reporter Victor, 24, was among those killed on Nov. 23, 2009. "I heard from the news about local media persons being killed. Kinabahan po ako, dahil alam kong doon naka-assign ang anak ko (I was anxious, as I knew that my son was assigned there)," Catherine told the court. She tried calling her son's mobile phone until 2 a.m. of Nov. 24, but she said it was only at 5 a.m. when she would find out that his son was among the slain journalists. "When I opened the TV, I saw the news where his colleagues from UNTV were asking for justice for their slain colleagues. They mentioned my son's name," Catherine said in Filipino. She said she rushed to the funeral homes in Koronadal City, where his son's remains and those of the other victims were brought from the massacre site. Catherine said she wanted to look at the body of his son but his relatives would not let her near him. "Hindi ako pinayagan lumapit sa anak ko, kasi baka raw hindi ko kayanin (I wasn’t allowed to come near my son, because I might not be able to take it)," she said as she broke down in tears. Unable to accept the reality More than a year after the brutal murder of his son, "hindi ko pa rin matanggap (I still couldn’t take it)," she said. Catherine is seeking more than P15 million in moral, exemplary, and actual damages, but stressed that the money could not replace the pain they had suffered from the incident. Like the grieving mother, Ramonita Salaysay, wife of slain the slain editor in chief and publisher of the Clear View Gazette Napoleon, said she too has not yet gotten over it. "Gusto kong kumbinsihin ang sarili ko na bangungot lang ito pero totoo kasi talaga siya [I wanted to convince myself that this is just a nightmare. But the truth is it’s for real]," she said. Ramonita is also seeking more than P15 million in damages. — VS, GMA News