AS the death toll in the Maguindanao massacre climbs to 57, more journalists are ventilating their indignation of last Tuesday's carnage that killed 21 of their colleagues who were out to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of a political candidate for governor in the area.
“The NUJP-Pagadian City-Zamboanga del Sur Chapter strongly condemns the killing in the highest terms,” Hirohito Cadion said in his text message sent to this paper.
Cadion added that the gruesome death of the 21 media men likewise ended the struggle for true democracy in the country and worsened the violence against journalists.
Cadion and other media practitioners attended mass together last Nov. 25 at the San Jose Parish to pray for the souls of the victims while some media offices hanged streamers expressing their disapproval of the killing.
A candle lighting activity is also set on Monday, Nov. 30, for a prayer and vigil dedicated to their fallen comrades. Cadion said all media will be wearing black shirts or armbands to mourn the deaths and show solidarity with other chapters doing the same.
The brutal killing suffered by the journalists was a result of a political war led by powerful men and their clans and this should have been prevented by those in powers themselves, declared Ping Deleverio, editor of the Sibugay Express.
“Hindi sila dapat pinatay. Sometimes, may mga media naman na mag-take sides pero hindi dapat ginamitan ng dahas especially if the media is only there to cover an event,” he said.
“Dili pwede idamay ang mga media sa political enmities tungod kay ang media maoy mata sa katawhan ug tigpalapnag sa kamatuoran alang sa tanan,” seconded Ellen Ajijul of MIT-RTVN.
For Vic del Pilar of Frontline Mindanao Online, he said:“The media is supposed to be neutral at all times. They may be associated with politicians during elections or in normal times but that doesn’t mean they’re already one-sided. They are there to get reports and there’s no reason for them to be included in political enmities.”
In saying his piece that the Maguindanao massacre will have a long-lasting impact on journalists, Provincial Information Officer Allan June Molde said that the state should make sure to respect and protect media practitioners at all times.
“Such an inhuman act only shows that there was no respect for the media who are the pillars of information,” he added.
Some of the local journalists who requested that their names be withheld collectively said that they were shocked and outraged over the killings and demanded that justice should be served.
All in all, they agreed that government should ensure that there will be no retaliation against the Ampatuans by the Mangudadatus in order that more violence will be prevented and no more innocent civilians will lose their lives.
As this developed, the NUJP-Zamboanga-Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (Zambasulta) Chapter also issued their statement, “expressing our most extreme outrage and horror over the massacre of probably as many as a dozen of our colleagues while in the course of their work in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.”
“Words fail to convey the enormous condemnation we heap upon this barbaric deed and its barbarous perpetrators, whose descent into moral monstrosity has no parallel in Mindanao’s troubled history,” the statement continued.
“Lest the world will erroneously perceive Mindanao’s as a dangerous society because of this tragic incident to our common communal discredit, we the Zamboanga mediamen are obliged to hasten to tell this truth: The primitive, savage practice of blood feud and vendetta behind the massacre of our colleagues – and the other civilians whose political activity they were covering on that fateful day- is solely the special characteristic of a few ethnic tribes now existing amid our civilized, democratic society in Mindanao.”
“We take this opportunity to appeal to these our tribal brothers and sisters to seriously re-examine their anachronistic and destructive sense or system of justice.”
“We ask the government to swiftly arrest and punish the perpetrators of this mass murder…Without such a categorical closure, we in Mindanao will continue to bleed and suffer from this systemic culture of violence and death. With hope we say, God forbid!” the statement concluded.
As for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) it called the Maguindanao massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history. This is the same group which earlier labeled the Philippines as the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only to Iraq.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA
