1000th day since Ampatuan massacre to be marked with vigil for justice

By InterAksyon.com
August 18, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — Media organizations, press freedom and human rights advocates, artists and victims’ relatives will hold an overnight vigil from Sunday to Monday to commemorate the thousandth day since the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre.

The vigil, which starts 4 p.m. Sunday until 9 a.m. Monday, will be held at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, which is spearheading the activity, said the continued murders of journalists after the massacre and the continued failure to enact a Freedom of Information law “have underscored the dire state of press freedom in the country.”

The massacre claimed 58 lives, including 32 media workers, most of them in a convoy on its way to file the candidacy for governor of Maguindanao of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu.

The slaughter has been officially recognized as the deadliest single attack on the press in history. It has also been described as the worst incident of electoral violence in recent Philippine history.

However, despite the enormity of the crime, close to three years after, the prosecution of the 196 accused, led by key members of the powerful Ampatuan clan, has barely cleared the starting gate. Only 76 suspects have been indicted, including just two of the detained clan members — patriarch Andal Amaptuan Sr. and his son, Andal Jr., who is said to have led the gunmen who stopped the convoy and murdered its passengers.

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