It was the morning of November 23, 2009 when Esmael Mangundadatu sent his women with dozens of journalists to file for his certificate of candidacy to the heartland of the Ampatuans. That Monday morning later came to be known as the heinous Maguindanao Massacre, the unspeakable slaughter committed on a hill in a place called the Promised Land, where neither the cross nor the crescent moon was of rule.
Despite the violent threats, Mangundadatu believed that the traditional laws of Rido or clan feuds, will protect the women and the non-family members from being slaughtered. Mangundadatu’s convoy, however, was stopped by gunmen while on its way to Shariff Aguak where it was showered with bullets, and bodies were buried in a hole dug by their government’s backhoe.
58 men and women died a violent death that day. 198 people have been accused, three of which have already died, but not one has been convicted. Seven years later and the story remains at a standstill with the nation waiting for an ending.
Looking back at the slaying state
The Ampatuans are known to be Gloria Arroyo’s major political ally. Hours after the government declared a state of emergency, Presidential Adviser for Mindanao Jesus Dureza visited the Ampatuan Residence to meet and confer with the clan.
It was also the same Dureza who used two government helicopters to pick up Andal Ampatuan Jr. Having been criticized for the overt special treatment given to the suspects, the Arroyo administration charged Datu Unsay mayor, Andal Jr., with 25 counts of murder. Four days after, then Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan were arrested.
The Arroyo administration went as far as declaring martial law and claiming the massacre was an act of rebellion to cast doubt on the involvement of the Ampatuans in the horrible case. “Just because they’re in this situation doesn’t mean we will turn our backs on them,” Lorelai Fajardo, Arroyo’s spokesperson told the media.
Witnesses link officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and civilian armed forces to the massacre. “A big chunk of that were actually part of the police in that area who helped the Ampatuans to carry out and execute first, the abduction and then the killing,” Atty. Romel Bagares, Executive Director of CenterLaw Philippines, which represents the journalist victims, said in an interview with The LaSallian.
“We are saying in fact that the state is liable for what happened because the perpetrators were state agents. We have international legal obligations, and the obligations of the state would include the rights of the citizens, but what happened was the people in the government instead, carried out this gruesome set of murder,” Atty. Bagares added.
Fallibility of human institutions
There are still 198 accused and, until now, according to Bagares, around fifty or so are still at large. Just this September 3, Akmad Macaton, one of the accused, has been nabbed by the police operatives of Region 12 in an anti-drug operation.
“It indicates that it is already almost seven years and still, a lot of people are still at large. There’s failure basically of police work”, Atty. Bagares commented.
The already seven-year-long on-going trial is a product of the failure in the justice system. “There’s an institutional lethargy, and then we have antiquated rules that really allow any party to delay a proceeding and then the government itself—the Department of Justice was not really on top of things,” the attorney pointed out.
The prosecution is also heavily politicized. With one political family involved in the killing having their own political goals and these goals found their way in the manner in which the prosecution was being conducted (the shotgun approach).
In seven years, one factor of the delay is also the several turnovers of the public prosecutors because of the disputes of Mangundadatu’s lawyers and there were also several changes with the Secretary of Justice.
“There are so many political things that happened and hobbled the prosecution. President Aquino didn’t seem very conscious that this was supposed to be the trial of the century, the test of the way his government looks at justice, but he just let things be. He was not on top of it,” Bagares said in frustration.
So far, the new Duterte Administration, whose Presidential legal adviser once was a counsel of the Ampatuans and was also a counsel of the President under whose term the massacred happened, has not given any pronouncement regarding the infamous case yet.
Something is better than nothing
It is now the turn of the defense for the presentation of evidences but the proceedings have been protracted. The prosecutors have been fighting over the system of managing the case. The CenterLaw, through Atty. Harry Roque, files a motion for a “First-In-First-Out” (FIFO) rule to speed up the trial of multiple murder cases.
Under FIFO, once the presentation of evidence for the defense and prosecution on a certain set of accused is done, then there can already be ruling on these cases. “It is not practical to wait for the entire set of 198 accused for the evidence presentation to be finished before you make a ruling,” Atty. Bagares explained.
The motion was initially rejected by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) but was reviewed by the Supreme Court and is now being adopted. Now, Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno expects the judgment to be rendered in some of the accused, including Andal Ampatuan Jr., within the year or at least, in the immediate future.
According to Atty. Bagares, the first set of accused whose cases the prosecution already rested and if the defense will be able to present their presentation of evidences this year, the first judgments can already be expected, hopefully, next year.
Settling with proximate justice
“Ultimate justice is still on the horizon, it’s still [an] open heaven but right now, we don’t have God’s eye point of view,” Atty. Bagares stated. For a lawyer like him, one doesn’t get full justice in this life. It’s always proximate justice.
It is proximate justice that grounds man in the fallibility of the human institutions. It grounds man in a way that checks and balances are necessary because despite the perfectibility of the human condition, original sin is still manifested in the tendency of man to be greedy for power.
The term “Proximate Justice” was coined by Steven Garber of the Washington Institute, which pertains to the realization that we have an imperfect justice. The justice that recognizes the fact that something is actually better than nothing. This is why the justice we can expect will go after more or less 30 people—these are the brains, the ones involved in the planning, and shooting—the rest of the accused will be with less offenses.
Seven years later, the ending is still full of uncertainty but one thing is for sure: The nation must continue to tell the story in behalf of the 58 voices that were lost and bylines that were erased until the universe is to be made right.
With hope for the horizon Atty. Bagares is talking about, may the 58 souls find the absolute justice the world has denied them. May they have God’s eye view of the story because their country, wherein it’s ridiculous to consider something as unimaginable, has failed them.
