TV station leads Maguindanao massacre commemoration
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Reporters and cameramen of UNTV in North Cotabato led Sunday the commemoration of the sixth month of Maguindanao massacre that killed 57 people.
Reporters, mostly officers and members of National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Kidapawan chapter, wore black t-shirts as symbol of their continuing grief and justice.
The indignation rally was held in front of the office of the UNTV along national highway at Purok-Dos, Barangay Lanao, this city.
John Orbe, reporter of UNTV based here, said justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre has become elusive.
Orbe and his crew led the prayers and renewal of their demand for justice and accountability to those who are behind the killings.
"It's been six months since the killings took place, yet it's not clear whether the relatives of the victims of the massacre get the justice due them," said Orbe.
The UNTV reporters, their friends in media, and those supporting their cause lighted candles as they offered prayers for the repose of the souls of the victims.
The NUJP statement said the May 23 activity of the Maguindanao massacre was the second to the last commemoration of the infamy under the Arroyo administration.
"As we do [commemorate the massacre], let us renew our resolve to hold this administration accountable for the lives lost because of its apathy, even outright hostility towards media, and its politics of expediency emboldened the enemies of press freedom, many of them its allies, to continue enforcing the ultimate censorship -- death," the NUJP statement said. (Malu Cadelina Manar)