It was 13 years ago when they lost some loved ones to political violence in Maguindanao, but the pain has not gone away.
And on Sunday, relatives of some of the victims went back to the scene of the crime, probably to pray for the elusive justice and for the eternal repose of the souls of the departed. Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from doing so, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
Fifty-eight people died in the November 23, 2009 massacre staged along an off-road hillside in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town in the predominantly Muslim Maguindanao province.
Thirty-two of the fatalities were journalists who were accompanying the wife of them Vice Mayor of Buluan town Esmael Mangudadatu to file his certificate of candidacy in the 2010 gubernatorial race in the province. The body of one of the reporters was never recovered.
Mangudadatu was supposed to ran against Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., son of then Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.
The Mangudadatu convoy was stopped however, by armed men manning a checkpoint. The victims were herded to the hillside where they were shot at close range with high-powered firearms.
The bodies were hastily buried in a shallow grave dug by a backhoe.
Mangudadatu eventually became governor in 2010, and later, congressman for the Second District of Maguindanao during the 18th Congress.
According to the NUJP, 44 of those accused were already convicted of the crime.