By Vann Marlo M. Villegas, Reporter
TWO senior members of a powerful political clan in southern Philippines were sentenced yesterday to life in prison for the massacre of more than 50 people a decade ago, in what a global media watchdog has called the single deadliest attack on journalists.
In a 761-page decision, a Quezon City court convicted former Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr. and his brother Zaldy, who is a former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, along with 26 other principal accused for 57 counts of murder.
More than a dozen more people were convicted as accessories to the crime. Their other brother, Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, was acquitted along with more than 50 others.
“This momentous verdict should help provide justice to the families of the victims, and build toward greater accountability for rights abuses in the country,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.
“Advocates should use this verdict to spur further political and judicial reforms to ultimately end the impunity that has plagued the country for far too long,” he said.
“More broadly, this verdict should prompt the country’s political leaders to finally act to end state support for ‘private armies’ and militias that promotes the political warlordism that gave rise to the Ampatuans,” he added.
The massacre took place when family members and the media were accompanying Esmael G. Mangudadatu to the Commission on Elections to file his certificate of candidacy on Nov. 23, 2009. Mr. Mangudadatu was then running for governor of the Mindanao autonomous region to end the 20-year rule of the Ampatuan family.
More than 50 people were murdered, including 32 journalists. New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists called the attack the “worst single incident of journalist killing.”
Judge Jocelyn A. Solis-Reyes said the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the murders had been planned.
“While the promulgation of judgment on the case is done, the narrative on the protection of media workers is far from over,” presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo, who used to lawyer for Andal Ampatuan Jr., said at a briefing.
The Ampatuan camp had reached out to Mr. Panelo in August to ask for President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s intercession in the case.
The judge ordered the Ampatuan siblings to pay P129.57 million in damages to the victims’ heirs.
At least 80 suspects were still at large, many of them close security detail for Andal Ampatuan Jr.
The number of accused in the murder case had been cut from 197 after some of them either died, such as the patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. who has since died, or were excluded from the trial.
All the accused were acquitted in one murder count on the ground of “reasonable doubt.” Prosecutors have said Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist, was the 58th victim of the massacre. His body was not found but his denture and jackets were found at the crime scene.
His name and signature were on the attendance sheet for journalists in the convoy.
“Although not all accused got convicted, we are glad that those who should rightfully be convicted got a life sentence,” Mr. Mangudadatu, now a congressman for Maguindanao, said in a statement in Filipino. “This event proves that there is still justice in our country.”
“We knew from the beginning where our strength lies and where certain gaps in our evidence exist so this is something more or less expected,” Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra told reporters. “We’re happy with the decision of the court.”
“The guilty verdict sends a strong message to the political dynasties in the country that they’re not above the law and that their wrongdoings and abuses can be punished by the state,” Dennis C. Coronacion, who heads the University of Santo Tomas Department of Political Science, said in a mobile-phone message.
The trial court heard 357 witnesses — 134 from the prosecution and 165 from the defense, aside from 58 private complainants.
The court ruling may still be appealed. — Gillian M. Cortez
