Saturday, January 23, 2010

Kin of Maguindanao massacre victims, journalists commemorate brutal slayings


Dozens of journalists and human rights advocates trooped Saturday, January 23, 2009 to a remote farming village in the southern Filipino province of Maguindanao to offer prayers and seek justice for the brutal slayings of 57 people, including at least 31 journalists two months ago today. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Nickee Butlangan)


MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / January 23, 2010) – Dozens of journalists and human rights advocates trooped Saturday to a remote farming village in the southern Filipino province of Maguindanao to offer prayers and seek justice for the brutal slayings of 57 people, including at least 31 journalists two months ago.

Families and relatives of those who were murdered November 23 in Ampatuan town also joined journalists. They offered candles and many were weeping as they offered prayers for the victims of the massacre blamed by authorities to the scion of a powerful political clan Andal Ampatuan, the mayor of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao.

Among those killed, including the wife and two sisters and supporters of Buluan town vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu who is running for governor in Maguindanao province.

The victims were traveling with Mangudadatu’s wife on a political caravan when some 100 gunmen allegedly led by the mayor seized them in Shariff Aguak’s town and herded them to the next town where they were brutally killed. The Ampatuan and Mangudadatu clans are bitter political foe.

Early this week, widows and family members of at least 13 journalists who accused Major General Alfredo Cayton and Colonel Medardo Geslani of negligence and dereliction of duty in connection with the murder filed formal charges against them with the Ombudsman in Davao City.

They said that prior to the killings, journalists who were in the caravan requested Cayton for security escorts for fear that armed supporters of the Ampatuan clan would attack the convoy, but the general did not provide them and instead told them that it was safe to travel to Shariff Aguak.

They added that the massacre could have been prevented had Cayton provided security to the convoy.

The Mindanao Times reported that Myrna Reblando, whose husband, Alejandro Reblando, was among the journalists killed in the massacre, said: “We have only begun. It does not mean that just because Gen. Cayton and Col. Geslani were not accused by the DPJ (Department of Justice) prosecutors of murder that they should no longer be held responsible for the death of our loved ones. We still hold them criminally and administratively liable for their gross negligence and dereliction of duty. Had it not been for their inaction, our loved ones could still be alive today.”

The Philippine Army investigated the accusations, but cleared Cayton, then the commander of the 6th Infantry Division, and Geslani, former commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade in Maguindanao province, for any culpability. Both Cayton and Geslani were relieved from their positions shortly after the massacre. Cayton was later promoted as Army deputy chief.

The Ampatuan clan is one of the most feared in Mindanao, but also the wealthiest in the impoverished province of Maguindanao, whose governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his sons, Zaldy Ampatuan, the regional governor, and several family members and relatives were linked by authorities to the gruesome killings. (With a report from Nickee Butlangan)

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