Notwithstanding their religious beliefs, Christmas came six days early for the relatives of those killed in the so-called Maguindanao massacre. Ten years after the gruesome and high-profile mass murder unfolded, brothers and principal suspects Datu Andal Jr. and Zaldy were convicted of 57 counts of murder in the bloody election-related massacre. Older brother Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, one of their co-accused was acquitted.
Woman of the hour Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 handed down the historic verdict Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, in a courtroom inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, sentencing the Ampatuan brothers to reclusion perpetua or up to 40 years in prison without parole.
Having already spent 10 years in jail, the Ampatuan brothers will serve 30 years out of their 40-year jail term.
What went before
On the morning of Nov. 23, 2009, a convoy of cars was caught in an armed ambush in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province. The convoy was headed for the Commission of Elections office in the town of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao Province in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu’s filing of certificate of candidacy to run for the governorship of Maguindanao province against Andal Ampatuan Jr. in the then upcoming May 2010 Philippine elections.
A total of 58 people, including 32 media workers who were mostly from Central Mindanao, were killed and later found in a mass grave in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, also in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. A day after the gruesome incident, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered law enforcers to catch the perpetrators and afterward issued Proclamation No. 1946, which placed the provinces of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City under a state of emergency.
The event was later on called Maguindanao massacre, also known as the Ampatuan Massacre. It is considered the worst case of election-related violence in the country. Mangudadatu wanted to challenge the powerful Ampatuan clan, which governs Maguindanao. The list of those killed included his wife and two sisters, who were supposed to file the election papers for the then local vice mayor, as well as laywers, aides, motorists who were witnesses or were mistakenly identified as part of the convoy. Mangudadatu reportedly allowed his female relatives to file his certificate of candidacy thinking that his enemies won’t harm women in the presence of journalist.
The Ampatuans, who had been in control of Maguindanao since 2001, were the main suspects of the crime. They are Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his two sons, Zaldy Ampatuan and Andal Ampatuan Jr. As of November 23, 2018, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s update showed that of the 197 suspects charged, 80 remain at large, 97 are in detention, including Andal Jr., while 11 are out on bail, including his brother Datu Sajid Islam. Moreover, nine have been cleared due to insufficient evidences, some due to deaths, including Andal Sr., the clan’s patriarch, who was diagnosed with liver cancer and died in 2015.
With this development, the Philippines was among the 17 countries included in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Global Impunity Index 2017 and ranked fifth worst country in unsolved media killings. CPJ, a New York- based independent organization that promotes and protects press freedom worldwide, also dubbed the massacre as the single most deadly assault against journalists. Moreover, the media killings page of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility shows that there has been a total of 42 journalist deaths since the Maguindanao massacre.
The trial of the massacre had been going on since 2010 and almost half of the accused were still under trial. Since the start of proceedings in January 2010, a total of 253 witnesses have been presented. The Presidential Task Force on Media Security said that cases of the 13 accused had been brought to the court for a decision, as of November 2017, while the judgment was formally announced today.
