IN THE KNOW

THE WHEELS of justice grind slow in the Maguindanao massacre trial, with the main suspect succumbing to cancer before the case is resolved.

On July 17, Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan and principal accused in the massacre, died at National Kidney and Transplant Institute.

His death, however, does not spare him from his civil liability. The summary judgment will not result in a conviction but it will determine whether the victims are entitled to recover damages.

The trial saw allegations of bribery, potential witnesses being killed or threatened, and delaying maneuvers by the clan’s lawyers. Many of the victims’ widows have been left struggling, their children forced to drop out of school due to poverty.

Fifty-eight people were killed in the ambush that took place in Maguindanao province on

Nov. 23, 2009. Although the body of Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist from General Santos City, was never recovered from the crime scene, he was recognized as the 58th victim of the massacre.

It was a Monday morning and Genalyn Mangudadatu, together with a group composed of relatives and supporters, lawyers and journalists, set out from Buluan town for Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy for Maguindanao governor of her husband, then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.

Just an hour after their departure, armed men stopped their convoy at the boundary of Ampatuan and Shariff Aguak towns. What happened next would become known as the Maguindanao massacre.

Those killed in the carnage were Mangudadatu’s wife, 14 relatives and supporters who were mostly women, two lawyers and the father of one of the lawyers, two drivers, 32 media workers and six motorists who were either witnesses or mistakenly identified as part of the convoy.

They either lay dead on the ground or were hastily buried in a mass grave, some of them beheaded and others raped and mutilated.

The Ampatuans, a political clan that has been engaged in a long-running feud with the Mangudadatu family, were tagged the masterminds of the massacre. Their alleged motive: to stop then Vice Mayor Mangudadatu from running for the post, which was held then by Ampatuan Sr. and which his son and namesake, then mayor of Unsay town, was seeking to fill. Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives