Ampatuan massacre victims honoured

Ampatuan massacre victims honoured

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By Rachelle Cruz

The Philippine Press Club of Ontario (PPCO) commemorated the 5th Anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre, where a total of 58 people were killed- the country’s worst election-related violence. 32 of them were journalists. Members of the PPCO honoured the victims as they read out the names, and laid flowers for them. The ceremony was held on Nov. 26, the same event where 2014 Marshall McLuhan Fellow Cheche Lazaro spoke.

The Nov. 23, 2009 massacre is alleged to have been carried out by the Ampatuan clan to stop a political rival from running for the post of governor. The victims were killed after their convoy was stopped and they were shot on site. Their bodies were later found in a mass grave. More than 100 suspects are standing in trial for murder.

“This is now the 5th year of that killing, of 32 journalists and until now it’s not been solved. So people, including journalists like us, are weary and are expecting solutions to that and we should give justice not only to the dead people but also for the families and loved ones. It is not fair that these people were killed with impunity,” Rose Tijam, president of the PPCO said.

Cheche Lazaro also called for justice for the Ampatuan Massacre victims through the Million Candles Campaign. You can watch it on YouTube here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ4sy7N-8xY

Five years in and families of the victims are still waiting for justice. Just last month, a witness in the Maguindanao massacre was killed and another wounded in an ambush.