By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© Journal Group Link International)

Today Marks the First Anniversary of the “Maguindanao Massacre” as the Committee to Protect Journalists Continues to Support Families of Victims

C HICAGO (jGLi) –  The New York city-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported on the first anniversary of the Maguindanao Massacre that the premature removal of bodies at the crime scene a year ago before “forensic teams could properly examine and collect evidence” is going to make it “impossible to reconstruct the scene of the crime position of bodies and trajectory of bullets” and “from which bullets were extracted from which bodies and from which weapons were carried by which killers.”

A fact-finding team led of Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator and Shawn W. Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, said, “It would be very difficult to get a conclusive verdict that the world is expecting to see at the end of the long legal process no matter how hard the judge and prosecutors try to achieve justice in this terrible crime.”

Mr. Dietz said when the CPJ team visited the scene of the crime last August “the holes that were dug by killers to bury bodies and the victims’ cars and vans were almost impossible to make out in the tall grass. And the crime scene has almost vanished.” He said this makes it impossible for “anyone to reconstruct the awful events that happened that day (Nov. 23, 2009) in Maguindanao.”

He was told by a police official that the backhoe that was used to bury the victims and their vehicles “had run out of fuel so the killers were not able to complete the cover-up.”

Meanwhile, the CPJ has vowed to provide to survivors of the Maguindanao Massacre “ongoing support for the families’ legal costs and their travel to court hearings” on the first anniversary of the world’s biggest mass murder of journalists Tuesday (Nov. 23).

Magnus Ag, advocacy and communications associate of the CPJ, told this reporter in an e-mail that, “In all, press freedom and children’s groups have channeled about 2.5 million pesos (US$58,000) in donations to the families.

“The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, CPJ’s local partner, distributed grants of 10,000 pesos (US$230) to each family in the immediate aftermath of the murders.

“The Freedom Fund, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and the local children’s foundation ABS-CBN Bantay Bata continue to provide scholarships to all affected children. The Freedom Fund also provides funds for emergency medical assistance. CPJ provides ongoing support for the families’ legal costs and their travel to court hearings.”

Aside from the CPJ, other journalists groups also contributed to surviving families during the last few months. Among them were the Chicago-based National Press Club of the Philippines in the United States (NPC Phil.-U.S.A.), the Filipino Press Group Sydney, the Philippine Press Club of Ontario and the Chicago Journalists Association, which awarded one of the children of the slain journalist a $1,000 scholarship. The Philippine Medical Association of Chicago, according to Drs. Nunilo & Elenita Rubio, who hosted Julia Mae Reblando and her mother, Myrna Reblando, to a lunch recently when Julia Mae received her scholarship from CJA headed by Allen Rafalson, is also willing to extend a scholarship to Julia Mae.

Please see for an update NUJP Disowns Getting “Massacre” Donation

At the same time, Mr. Ag directed this reporter to the website of CPJ, whose fact-finding team recommended the following courses of action:

·        President Benigno Aquino and his administration must follow through on commitments to ensure justice in the Maguindanao killings. The administration should demand full coordination and cooperation among law-enforcement agencies in the Maguindanao case. It should order all evidence collected by police be turned over to prosecutors immediately. It should further demand that police give full attention and sufficient resources to apprehending the 130 Maguindanao suspects still at large.

·        National police should thoroughly investigate all acts of violence against witnesses in the Maguindanao case. Police should also take assertive and timely enforcement action in response to reports of intimidation and bribery of witnesses and victims’ families in the Maguindanao case. Authorities should arrest and prosecute all those responsible for bribes, threats, and violence.

·        These steps must be part of a broad, nationwide strategy to aggressively prosecute the killers of journalists. Police and justice official should consider the creation of rapid-response teams composed of forensic and legal experts to handle all major crimes, including the murders of journalists.

·        The legislature and executive branches should ensure adequate funding for the Department of Justice witness-protection program. They should also devote sufficient funding for DNA forensic testing and other technology-driven investigation techniques.

·        Judicial officials should review court rules that have been exploited by defense attorneys to delay the journalists’ murder proceedings, often across many years. Judicial officials should revise rules allowing attorneys to file duplicative, harassing, and irrelevant motions. These motions have been used as a stalling tactic to break the will of witnesses and victims’ families. And

·        The judicial system should continue to review and approve all motions seeking changes of venue in journalists’ murder cases. Public prosecutors and attorneys representing victims’ families have filed these motions in a number of cases to ensure neutral-and-secured venues. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at:  (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)