NUJP on Maguindanao massacre: Go beyond remembering

MANILA, Philippines – The massacre of 58 people, 32 journalists included, in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009 shouldn’t only be remembered but should “spark” people to take a stand and act against these media killings, the chairperson of a local media group said Friday.

“People have the knowledge, they know it (Maguindanao Massacre),” Rowena Paraan of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Friday. “They are smart and it’s always on the back of their mind, a spark is all that’s needed for the people to make a movement on the issue of media killings.”

Paraan and NUJP director Sonny Fernandez led a group of journalists in a countdown to that fateful day when members of the Ampatuan clan, considered the most powerful in Maguindanao, slaughtered 58 people, 32 of them journalists and media workers.

The patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan Sr., and several of his sons, including Mangudadatu’s expected rival in the elections at the time – Andal Jr.—topped the list of 197 persons who have been charged with multiple murder for the massacre.

“We should tell the stories continuously, help the people understand,” Paraan said during a brief candle lighting ceremony at the Media Resource Plaza in Makati City, home to members of the Inquirer Group of Companies – INQUIRER.net, Radyo Inquirer 990AM, Inquirer Publishing Inc., Hinge Inquirer Inc., Inquirer Catalyst Media and Megamobile.

The candle lighting campaign began November 1, to commemorate the month of what has been considered the most gruesome act taken against journalists here.

A deeper understanding

“It is not in the president, the Justice Secretary or the Chief Justice, it falls upon the people,” said Paraan who lit up four candles to represent the four years since the massacre. “We should educate the people and raise their awareness of the implications.”

Fernandez said the awareness campaign should “stir the interest of the people.”

“For the current generation, the people who witnessed the event, it will never be forgotten, but I could not say the same for the next,” said Fernandez.

Paraan added that like the “Million People March” which galvanized the people into action against the Priority Development Assistance Fund or “pork barrel” of lawmakers, the Maguindanao massacre and the issue of media killings would hopefully provide the spark that would enjoin the public to fight violence and corruption.

“What would drive you to kill 58 people, gun down a convoy of innocent media men?” Paraan asked.

Fernandez added that journalists should never stop to reminding people about what happened on Nov. 23, 2009.

“We should continue to tell the people what happened, of the indignities that happened to our fellow journalists,” he said.

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