The nation commemorated on Sunday the 16th anniversary of the massacre of 58 individuals in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. Out of this number, 32 were journalists and media workers.
On that morning in 2009, the victims were part of a convoy intending to file a certificate of candidacy with the local elections office for succeeding year’s polls. The Ampatuans had lorded it over the area for many years, and a challenger from a rival family now had the audacity to challenge them.
The result was the incident known as the worst case of election-related violence in the country, and the single deadliest attack against the media in the world.
The trial dragged on for 10 years, with the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City rendering judgment in Dec. 2019. Some 197 individuals were charged with murder, and eight of them died during the pendency of the case. Some witnesses were also threatened, attacked, and killed.
The much-publicized case brought to the national spotlight a widely known attribute of provincial politics – that numerous families in power see their positions not as an opportunity to serve, but an entitlement passed on from generation to generation. They consider their constituencies as kingdoms, the people their subjects. Their personal interests take precedence over everything, and they do not care about the people except that these will be the same voters who will keep them in power come elections.
Woe to anyone who dares change or challenge that status quo.
The Ampatuan massacre continues to shock us, 16 years hence. The heinous crime was committed in broad daylight, done in arrogance, without any attempt to hide or apologize for the darkest deeds. The victims were killed in the most inhumane ways, their bodies disposed of as though they were worth nothing. Only people who believe that they could get away with such barbarity could still be able to sleep at night.
Impunity manifests itself in many ways. It could come in the form of a physical attack on one’s political rival and anybody who dares challenge one’s dominance. Or it could be the vile dipping into public funds, by any means available, depriving the rightful beneficiaries – ordinary Filipinos – of services that are rightfully theirs so that they do not get submerged in flood, their children enjoy decent school facilities, or use buildings and roads that are of good quality.
The Ampatuan case will continue to be a cautionary tale of how drunkenness with power results in the disintegration of scruples, emboldens powerful people to think that they could play god with the lives of others, and makes them sure that justice will never catch up with them.
Woe to those who believe there will never be a reckoning of their actions.
