AMPATUAN, MAGUINDANAO?The wind sweeping across the village failed to blow away the horror that still lingered. The sun was blistering, but it failed to thaw the anger that still seethed.

On Saturday, an eerie silence fell over Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman here as hundreds of candles burned on a hilly gravesite, white balloons soared into the sky and a group of justice-seekers bowed their heads in prayer for 57 civilians killed in the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre.

Exactly two months after the bloodbath?blamed on the powerful Malacañang-allied Ampatuan family?relatives, friends and others outraged by the carnage had not eased up on their demand for justice.

One of them, Reyna Fe Momay-Castillo, still cannot find peace, torn by uncertainty over whether her father, journalist Reynaldo Momay, is really dead.

To this day, the body of Reynaldo?one of at least 30 media workers slaughtered by gunmen linked to the Ampatuans?has not been found.

The relatives visited the massacre site?in the town named after the Ampatuans?together with some 500 members of Kalinaw Mindanao, an alliance of journalists, lawyers, human rights workers and militant groups seeking justice for the dead.

The victims had lain buried in the very place where they were gunned down.

At the Clark Freeport in Pampanga province, dozens of journalists also offered commemorative prayers for the slain media workers.

Eyes filled with tears, Castillo said: ?I only wish now that he will be found. To hope that we will be able to find him alive is getting slimmer everyday.?

The family observed Reynaldo?s 62nd birthday on Jan. 18.

For Myrna Reblando, widow of Manila Bulletin reporter Bong Reblando, the fight for justice must be waged collectively.

?They have killed countless civilians because of their desire to continue to hold on to power. And that desire for money,? she said, also in tears. ?That must end now with all of us working together, fighting for justice to prevail.?

Wearing a white shirt printed with the words ?Justice Now,? Reblando said the death of her husband had brought too much pain to her children. But the pain is what makes them stronger in their determination to continue the fight, she said.

?When are we all going to fight?? the widow said, candles burning near her feet. ?Now is the best time for us to demand justice ? Even if I will die fighting for them (the victims), that I will do. Enough of their (politicians?) monstrosity.?

Gov?t accountability

Kalinaw Mindanao called the trip to the gravesite a ?national interfaith mission for justice and peace.?

?The mission will also document further accounts on the incident that will be of use in the pursuit of the case against the suspects ? and in demanding accountability from all levels of government found complicit or negligent in the crime,? Kalinaw Mindanao said.

Lawyer Carlos Isagani Zarate, one of the convenors of Kalinaw Mindanao, said the massacre showed a link between the brutality of the killers and the kind of government the Philippines has.

?Our aim is not only to further expose the brutality of the butchers ? but more importantly, to unmask the monstrous complicity of the Arroyo government, its culpability in backing not just the private armies of the warlord Ampatuans but the public army?the AFP?that has engendered the violence,? said Zarate, also the secretary general of the Union of People?s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM).

Lawyers Concepcion Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo, members of the UPLM, were among the victims.

Eva Jayme, younger sister of Brizuela, said justice may come only after a slow, painful process.

She said her sister?s children were still reeling from the loss of their mother. One of them, who works as a caregiver in Japan, already wants to come home, she said.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative and senatorial candidate Satur Ocampo, who joined the mission, said justice would only come for the victims if more people from all sectors united and pressured the national government.

He said the government must show sincerity in dismantling private armies and that it had the capacity to protect the people.

Some journalists in the group that went to the gravesite were not happy with Ocampo?s visit.

One of them, Freddie Solinap of Periodico Banat, based in Koronadal City, told the Inquirer that he felt insulted that an activist like Ocampo had tainted, he claimed, the observance of the second month anniversary of the massacre with politics.

No politics

Solinap lost five of his newspaper staff in the massacre.

?We, journalists from Koronadal City, did not ask any help from politicians because we do not want that the activity will be tainted with political color,? Solinap said.

Zarate said his group invited Ocampo and Gabriela party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan ?because, as we all know, they have been consistent in their human rights advocacies.?

Reblando, chair of ?Justice Now,? an organization of the families of the slain media victims, said: ?I promised not to cry again, but I can?t hold back my tears. Nothing can soothe the pain, absolutely nothing can ease my sorrow.?

She appealed to the national government to run after the perpetrators and give justice to the victims.

More than 40 vehicles joined the convoy, which was escorted by the police and the military.

For Monet Salapang, widow of Napoleon Salaysay of the Mindanao Gazette, only until the suspects in the massacre were justice served would her anger fade.

?I have no fear now. I am angry. Everything appears slow now. The more it fuels my anger against those who killed my husband and the other victims,? she said.

Call for vigilance

At the Clark Freeport, some 50 Luzon journalists on Saturday offered prayers and lighted candles to remember their murdered colleagues.

The journalists, gathered here for a three-day human rights reporting seminar, vowed to continue holding protests to demand swift action from the government.

Melinda Quintos de Jesus, executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), which sponsored the seminar, said journalists should be vigilant, especially in the coming elections, to avoid a repeat of the Maguindanao attack.

?Only a vigilant press and an informed citizenry can prevent the powerful from savaging the very principles, institutions and laws that they?re supposed to be protecting and enforcing,? said a statement which the CMFR and the seminar participants signed. With a report from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon