2 years after massacre, pain lingers

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Nanay Nancy rues at the sorry state of her family since she lost her daughter, Gina dela Cruz, nearly a year ago in what has been viewed as the darkest moment in the history of Philippine journalism—the Maguindanao Massacre.

“Our situation has turned from bad to worse,” the 64-year-old woman said when the Inquirer visited her at her ramshackle house in Barangay Labangal in General Santos City last week.

“We only had rice and noodles for lunch today. This morning, we just took a cup of coffee. Tonight, I and my little grandchildren would sleep with empty stomachs,” she said.

For the past days, they have been eating just once a day, Nanay Nancy confided, saying financial assistance to the family after her daughter’s death had run dry.

Their erstwhile breadwinner, Gina, a sales agent of the tabloid Gensan Focus, was among the 58 people, mostly media workers, who tagged along with the wife and other relatives of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu in filing his certificate of candidacy in Shariff Aguak town on Nov. 23, 2009, in a bold challenge to the Ampatuan clan’s hold on political power in Maguindanao.

Their bodies were found in the secluded, hilly village of Salman in Ampatuan town, hours after armed men intercepted their convoy. Some of the bodies were buried along with their vehicles in pits prepared by a backhoe.

But there’s more to the gruesome killings than the loss of 58 lives. Two years later and with Mangudadatu now the governor of the province, the magnitude of damage—psychological, emotional and financial—remains to be beyond reckoning.

Gina’s family

Gina left behind five children. The youngest, Queen Jiovana, is 2 years old.

Three—Jergilyn, 11, now in Grade 6; Jergiselie, 10, in Grade 5; and Ralph Janus, 7, in preschool—are enrolled in a public elementary school in Labangal.  Jergilyn and Jergiselie are both scholars of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), while Janus is a recipient of ABS-CBN’s Bantay Bata 163 scholarship program.

The eldest, Jergin, 18, stopped going to school to work part-time for the family.

Another sales agent of Gensan Focus, Rossell Morales, was among the massacre victims. His wife, Grace, 35, said her current situation was a lot tougher than her previous experience as an undocumented worker in Kuwait for two years.

“My three children are closer to their father compared to me. I worked abroad for two years and he took good care of them during my absence,” Grace said.

Inquirer scholars

Her children—Ma. Alexandra, 12 ( Grade 6); Rochelle Fe, 11 (Grade 4); and Shandy, 7 (Grade 2)—are recipients of a scholarship program sponsored by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“Each of them receives P600 allowance per month for two years now. I would like to thank the Inquirer for helping my kids continue with their studies,” Grace said.

They are determined to finish schooling. Alexandra wants to be a lawyer; Rochelle, a scientist, and Shandy, a teacher.

They were gathered in one table doing their homework when the Inquirer arrived in their home in Barangay Apopong, also in General Santos.

Alexandra said she was terribly hurt by what happened to her father. “I hope and pray that justice will finally prevail. We will never have peace of mind unless justice is served to the victims,” she said in the vernacular.

Grace said that through the help of the NUJP, the London-based Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists  pledged to extend assistance to the livelihood projects of the families of the massacre victims.

“Just this month, we underwent sort of capacity-building training to equip us with skills and knowledge how to handle a livelihood project. We can’t rely forever on the benefactors. We must learn to stand on our own,” Grace said.

Donations

Nanay Nancy said she had received financial help from various groups, including the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (P156,000), and from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (P100,000). But she claimed that her other daughter, Ma. Pilar, borrowed the money given by Arroyo but has refused to pay it back.

“The amount could have been a big help for us. But, to avoid family squabble just because of money, I stopped demanding payment from her,” Nanay Nancy said.

Each month, her three grandchildren receive a total of about P1,800 in allowances from the NUJP and Bantay Bata 163. The amounts are for transportation expenses and for any school project.

“Oftentimes, I have to use their allowance to buy rice and noodles or balbacua soup so we would have something to eat. Anyway, the school is just a walking distance from our house,” Nanay Nancy said.

Since Gina’s death, she lamented, “we rarely had a decent meal. Usually, our meal is composed of rice with soy sauce, cooking oil, noodle or balbacua soup as viand.”

She had put up a sari-sari (variety) store from the donations she received. This, however, could hardly sustain their daily needs.

“We need a steady source of income,” she said.

When asked how the children were doing in their studies, she replied: “They barely passed in their subjects. Most of their grades are in line of sevens and eights. Nobody is tutoring and helping them do the assignment since the time their mother was killed.”

But Nanay Nancy believes that her grandchildren are somehow getting used to such situation. “They have learned to endure and live with the misery. Nobody from among them complains.”