On Tuesday, relatives of the 32 media workers who were among the 58 who lost their lives in the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre, accompanied by scores of colleagues of the fallen, gathered at the killing field to honor the dead and vow once more not to rest until justice is rendered for what has been called the worst incident of electoral violence in recent Philippine history and the deadliest single attack on the press ever around the world.
Such was the magnitude of the carnage and so slow has the pace with which the prosecution of those accused of the outrage been that freedom of expression and media groups worldwide saw it fit to declare November 23 as the International Day to End Impunity.
As Rowena Paraan, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines put it aptly, the Ampatuan massacre has made the Philippines the “poster boy” of the impunity with which extrajudicial killings continue to take place worldwide because of the failure of governments to bring perpetrators to justice.
The Ampatuan massacre is, of course, the extreme example.
Since 1986, 146 journalists and media workers have been murdered in the country. Of this number, 104 died during the nine-year presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And, despite his promise of justice and respect for human rights, at least six more have been murdered since President Benigno Aquino III came to power last year.
Most of these cases never made it to court. Of those that did, only 10 have resulted in convictions, but only of the actual killers, mostly hired assassins---and none of those who actually ordered the murders.
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