The fifth year after the Maguindanao massacre was marked Sunday with promises to not let a mass killing like that happen again.
Local officials and heads of national government offices said such an incident would not happen again because the Filipino people would not allow it. Journalism groups joined in the clamor for no recurrence of the attack on journalists and lawyers but it was more of a wish, even a demand, but not an expression of certainty.
No one could really be certain that the killing of 58 people in one incident, dubbed as the biggest mass killing in recent Philippine history, would not happen again. Of the 58 killed in that incident on Nov. 23, 2009, 32 were journalists who were in a convoy to cover the filing of candidacy papers of a gubernatorial candidate in Maguindanao, south of the country.
Their deaths placed the Philippines in the category of the 10 most dangerous countries for journalists, from 2009 until the present. Others in that category included Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
Groups for the protection of journalists said the Maguindanao massacre could not have taken place without the culture that allowed extrajudicial killings and attacks on the media because those responsible believed they could get away with anything, including mass murder.
Despite pronouncements of measures being taken to prevent a repetition, there are indications to the contrary because of failures in prosecution and in protecting witnesses. These failures make it possible for another mass killing of lawyers and journalists caught in political combat, to recur.
The size and complexity of the case, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said, made it difficult to hurry the prosecution of the close to 200 people charged with the massacre. The prosecution and the defense panels have lined up a total of almost 500 witnesses.
Principal suspects are members of the powerful Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao province. The Ampatuans have denied the charges and even turned themselves in days after the incident to show their willingness to face their accusers.
What complicated the justice process was the killing of two of the prosecution’s witnesses who earlier talked about being part of the Ampatuan private army and wanting to reveal what they knew of the mass killing. With witnesses getting killed one after the other, families of the victims have become disgruntled over the slow judicial process.
Five years after the convoy of cars was stopped and their occupants massacred, the killings and clan wars and the use of unlicensed firearms in Maguindanao continue.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife, three sisters and several political supporters died in the massacre, said in an Associated Press report that the massacre "will never happen again" because the Ampatuans are in prison and the local police would not allow armed groups to operate again in the area.
The killings and political rivalry continue in the province, maybe not of the same magnitude as five years ago, but they happen. The problem with impunity is it could inspire more killings.
It is urgent that justice for the Maguindanao massacre victims be attained soon in order to bring a pessimistic people a bit of hope.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)