ARE the fields out there at Sitio Masalay singing a lighter song now?
The hills at Sitio Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao was the last place the 58 victims saw before they were snuffed out brutally by the monsters who are convicted on Thursday, December 19.
I was one among those journalists and peace advocates who went to that site a month after the November 23 massacre. Meeting some families of the journalist victims, we stood atop the ground were their loved ones were hurriedly buried and said our prayers for justice.
One of the nuns, by nature spiritual and naturist, said even the leaves and the winds in Masalay felt heavy. They were the silent witness of that gruesome unnatural act that claimed 58 lives, 33 of them journalists, two lawyers, family of a political clan and five others who were just motorists passing on the wrong time.
A marker and a shrine were placed on that site for the families to visit every year. For 10 years, they also waited for justice, as the trial of the decade on the worse journalist and election-related killing wore on. A long trial it was, marked by witnesses being killed, every legal maneuver thrown by the defense to prolong the case, some suspects dying or being released on bail.
But came December 19, and the words the families longed to hear came: “Guilty beyond reasonable doubt.”
That day would not have happened if not for courage, said Nonoy Espina, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Courage of the families, who organized themselves as Justice Now, to go through this long trial, braving threats right on their doorsteps, and bribes in exchange of dropping the case.
Courage also goes to NUJP and the lawyers who took each step with the family on this case, to the journalists and rights advocates who continue to tell this story for the world to remember, and also to Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes for penning a brave decision.
That story of the #FightFor58 is not over. One journalist victim, Reynaldo Monay, was not included in the decision because his body was never found in the site. NUJP and the families will continue to appeal for his inclusion.
The families still worry for their safety. Other members of the Ampatuans are acquitted as 19 family members are still in government. The PCIJ also notes the state should run after the clan’s “597 bank accounts, 500 hectares of real property assets, 130 motor vehicles, 420 firearms, and a private army of many hundreds”.
It is state accountability that is missing in this trial, as Espina points out in the post-trial press conference. Those guilty are representatives of the state: governor, mayor, police. The state should bring them to justice and protect the civilians and families. There are still many things that are found wanting.
For now, the family members say their crushed spirits and hope have been revived. Journalists and rights advocates say this is a message to the country that impunity will get their day in court.
The message of the families is: “Do not let the story die with them #fightfor58.” That is perhaps the song that the fields in Masalay will tell us from now on.