Journalists’ call: Never forget Maguindanao massacre victims

Eight years after the world’s worst single attack on the press happened in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, journalists and media students across the country took time off on Thursday and lit candles to demand justice for the 58 victims, 33 of them media workers.

Clad in black shirts printed with “Stop Killing Journalists,” and bearing torches, journalists in Bacolod City marched around the public plaza, where they lit the Marker of the Fallen Journalists and released eight white balloons to symbolize the eight years that justice had eluded the massacre victims.

The victims were killed by armed men, led by members of the Ampatuan clan, on the road to Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao. They accompanied the convoy of supporters of now Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu who would file his certificate of candidacy to challenge a member of the Ampatuan clan in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

“The culprits have not been convicted or penalized,” said Renato Duran, president of Negros Press Club in Bacolod City.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in Bacolod said the pursuit for justice for the massacre victims continued.

“As we remember the eighth year of the massacre, there’s a resurgence of threats and attacks on journalists who report critical stories about this administration,” NUJP-Bacolod said in a statement.

In Iloilo City, members of Iloilo Provincial Capitol Press Corps and the human rights group Karapatan lit candles at Graciano Lopez Jaena Park.

“We should not forget the worst attack on the press in history. On its anniversary, the victims’ families are still crying for justice,” said Bing Pabiona, president of Iloilo Provincial Capitol Press Corps.

In Legazpi City, a photo and poetry exhibit depicting images of the massacre opened at Bicol University on Thursday.

Some 200 students and members of College Editors Guild of the Philippines lit candles, offered prayers  and formed themselves into letters which read, “11.23.Forgotten?” to open the exhibit.

In Zamboanga City, journalists took time off their assignments on Thursday to hear Mass at the historical shrine of Fort Pilar.

“We hope to remind not just our colleagues, but also the people in general, that somewhere down in Maguindanao eight years ago, 58 people were killed, but until now there’s no justice,” said Queenie Casimiro, chair of NUJP chapters in Zamboanga City and Basilan. —REPORTS FROM CARLA P. GOMEZ, NESTOR P. BURGOS JR., JULIE ALIPALA AND REY ANTHONY OSTRIA