Still, impunity

After nine years, the multiple murder case against several members of the Ampatuan clan finally looks headed for resolution.

Undersecretary Joel Egco of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, a former journalist who is executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, says the verdict is expected within the first quarter of 2019.

Based on his consultations with government prosecutors, Egco believes the Ampatuans, the primary defendants, will be convicted for the massacre of 58 people, 32 of them media workers, in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao nine years ago today.

The phrase should be “nine long years,” but considering the dismal state of the judicial system in our country, nine years may be considered progress.

Of course it could take another nine years – and this is an optimistic forecast – before final judgment is rendered. It takes more than two decades before a single hazing death is resolved with finality by the courts. What more of 58 deaths, perpetrated by an estimated 300 people?

Still, we can thank the heavens for small mercies. At least the accused brains of the worst case of election violence in this land of violence have been detained without bail for the past nine years.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Presiding Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, who is handling the massacre case, raised concern about her looming verdict after she allowed defendant Zaldy Ampatuan to leave jail in August to attend the wedding of his daughter in a posh hotel.

With most people expecting a guilty verdict, the Ampatuans face the prospect of life in prison. Every member of the clan should be considered a flight risk. Yet the furlough for a wedding bash was approved. Does it give any indicaton of Solis-Reyes’ much-awaited ruling?

* * *

Egco, whose task force is supposed to push for the resolution of cases involving various forms of attacks on media workers, told “The Chiefs” last Tuesday on Cignal TV’s One News channel that he expected a guilty verdict against not just the Ampatuans but also on several of the direct participants in the gruesome mass killing.

“If they’re not found guilty, I will resign,” Egco told us.

Considering the documented evidence of the atrocity plus the testimonies of state witnesses, any magistrate who clears the Ampatuans will be committing professional suicide. The only question is the gravity of the punishment.

Andal Ampatuan Jr., accused of direct participation in the mass murder, cannot expect leniency. His relatives, however, are accused of involvement in a conspiracy. Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, says he was in Manila at the time of the massacre and could not have participated in any plot. Will Solis-Reyes accept the alibi?

Those who believe government prosecutors during the Arroyo administration designed the case for delayed litigation say justice could have been speeded up if the primary defendants had been charged separately.

Of 197 people who were indicted, 188 remain on trial. Egco said four were allowed to turn state witness; four have died including clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr.; the others were cleared. About 80 other suspects are at large.

* * *

Our other guest, Melinda Quintos de Jesus of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, said that if guilty verdicts are forthcoming, it could impart the message to those who target media workers that “there will be justice down the line.”

Yet she laments that the environment that bred the impunity underpinning the massacre is very much in place, and Filipinos don’t have a “great record” of learning lessons from such tragedies.

“We look at our culture and it is one of endemic violence,” she sighed. “What is it about our democracy that makes it a negative force?”

That culture of impunity tends to be reinforced by a president who is openly disdainful of certain journalists and media organizations.

De Jesus’ group counts 86 cases of harassment and assault in various forms including online threats and trolling against journalists during the Duterte administration. The government has disputed this and challenged the figure.

We asked Egco what he thought of the President’s attitude toward critical reporting, which could infect other public officials’ attitude toward the press. Egco said Duterte, despite his abhorrence for certain media organizations and banning of the Rappler reporter from Malacañang coverage, must be judged not by his words but by his actions.

Duterte’s Administrative Order No. 1, issued in October 2016, created the media task force that Egco now heads. Executive Order No. 2 directed all agencies in the executive branch to respect freedom of information. This FOI is limited by rules on national security, privacy and privileged communication. Media groups have complained that the access is still restricted.

* * *

Duterte’s spokesman and chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo, who faced us yesterday in another episode of The Chiefs, said the President, believe it or not, respects press freedom and enjoys the company of journalists. But Duterte doesn’t like slanted and malicious reporting, Panelo told us.

The administration will likely note the significance of the first guilty verdicts in the Maguindanao massacre being handed down during the Duterte presidency.

And yet the circumstances that made the Ampatuans believe they could get away with the macabre crime are still very much around.

We might not see another massacre on the scale of this one. But there are still a lot of politicians out there who believe they control every aspect of the criminal justice system in their turfs, giving them the freedom to get away with murdering their rivals, journalists, and anyone else who dares challenge their power.

Andal Ampatuan Jr. and his minions attacked those 58 people, then buried them in a shallow grave, some of them inside their cars, squishing them all together using a backhoe of the provincial government… because they could.

There are still many like-minded politicians who are ready to commit murder for the most basic of reasons: because they can.

Nine years of waiting for justice in the Maguindanao massacre has not changed this sorry state of our republic.