KIDAPAWAN CITY -- More than a hundred peace and human rights advocates from different areas in Mindanao are expected to gather Saturday at Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, where 57 people were massacred.
The participants, all members of the Kalinaw Mindanao, an interfaith coalition of human rights and service-oriented institutions and organizations and concerned individuals from cities of General Santos, Cotabato, Kidapawan, Koronadal, and Davao, will converge around 10 a.m., on Jan 23 at the municipal hall of Ampatuan.
An hour later, a convoy of around 30 vehicles will travel to the massacre site where an interfaith mission for justice and peace would be held, according to the secretariat of the Kalinaw Mindanao.
The interfaith mission aims to amplify peoples' cry for justice by remembering the victims on the second month of the massacre at Sitio Masalay, "the site nurtured by their blood."
"We will be putting up a marker there to commit our call for justice to posterity," the secretariat said.
The mission will also document further accounts on the incident that will be of use in the pursuit of the case against members of the Ampatuan clan and in demanding accountability from all levels of government found complicit or negligent in the crime.
During the mission, interviews with families of the massacre victims, the Mangudadatu family, military officials, and residents of Ampatuan town now gripped with fear.
The secretariat said the Maguindanao massacre that has drawn much public condemnation "is now on a critical legal battle. In which fears of a whitewash is highly plausible." (Malu C. Manar)