A year after Kabacan massacre, families of 9 Moro victims are left in limbo

Families of the nine Moro men, including a minor, who died in a massacre near a university gate in Kabacan exactly a year ago, lit candles during the rally to remember the bloody incident that robbed them of their loved ones. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

KABACAN, COTABATO — One year after nine Moro civilians were killed on a bloody Saturday near a university campus here, survivors and relatives are still crying for justice.

In a rally held at the massacre site on Sunday, August 29, some of the families and relatives of those who died asked why no charges had been filed and why government officials who had told them to not be afraid were silent now.

Jabib Guiabar, the designated area coordinator for the seven villages of Kabacan that now formed part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), called out President Duterte, the Cotabato governor, vice governor and provincial board members, the Kabacan mayor, the police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for answers.

“(Days) after it happened, we held a rally—it was a big rally—to bring to our leaders’ attention what is happening in Kabacan,” Guiabar said in Filipino.

“We addressed it to our president—President Duterte—we addressed it to (our governor), our vice governor, our provincial board members, our mayor…Now, it’s the anniversary of their death and we keep repeating, where is justice?”

He also blasted the provincial and municipal officials for their silence in the case.

“It’s already a year, and you don’t even have anything to say to the family where (our quest for justice) is heading,” he said, speaking in Tagalog. “Governor, wala kang masabi…ang NBI na nag imbestigar, pero walang resulta. Asan na ang resulta? (Governor, you have nothing to say, even the NBI which investigated the case had nothing to say about the result, where is the result)?” he said, adding that it was the case of “justice delayed, justice denied.”

Fathma Guiabar, a member of the Kabacan municipal council, said she had filed a resolution requesting the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the NBI to give the council an update on the case.

Guiabar said families of the victims feared that the facts about the death of their loved ones would just be forgotten as no case had been file a year after the killing.

Although several Mindanao leaders—including Rep. Mujiv Hataman and top BARMM officials earlier called for a probe into the killing, families of the victims wondered why, beyond their signing of the affidavit, the case hardly moved at all.

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, Bangsamoro spokesperson and head of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), who met the victims days after the killing, said he lacked information about the status of the Kabacan massacre case at present.

Witnesses said the nine people were riding six separate motorcycles when armed men stopped them on a busy provincial road, demanding their identification cards. Suddenly, they were shot at close range at 12:10 p.m. on Aug. 29 last year. Of the nine people, eight were killed on the spot, while one was rushed to the hospital but later died.

One of the riders, who died instantly, was able to call his father minutes before they were shot. “We are stopped by the police,” Katindig Kagayawon, 17, a Carmen National High School student, told his father in Maguindanaon. When the father asked him if they were already allowed to go, the son told him they were about to be shot. Seconds later, the father heard eight gunshots.

One of the victims who refused to be named because of security concerns said she was disappointed that the case hardly moved at all after she risked her life to speak the truth.