Maguindanao massacre kin feel betrayed by PNoy

ABS-CBNnews.com

Massacre case won't end under PNoy: lawyer

MANILA - Families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre feel they have been betrayed by the Aquino administration after finding no justice 4 years after the killings.

Harry Roque, lawyer of some of the victims, said that after four years, only 106 suspects in the massacre are in detention. Eighty-eight more are still at large.

One hundred and forty-eight witnesses have been presented in the case so far out of an estimated 500 testimonies to be presented by both the prosecution and defense.
Most of the witnesses presented, Roque noted, are for the bail petitions of some of the accused.

"At the rate we are going I don't think it can be achieved the prosecution within the term of President Aquino. I would hope it is during my lifetime but I am sure you know of many sensational cases involving single victims taking as long as 15 years when you consider the appellate stage as well," he said in an interview on ANC's Headstart.

"We seem to have accepted the fact that litigation takes long in the Philippines and we were hoping that the gruesome nature of this massacre would prompt authorities to reform the system. Clearly we need to punish the killers as soon as possible because we are already the most murderous country for journalists," he added.

Roque also said one of his clients, Myrna Reblando, had to seek asylum due to continuous threats from the Ampatuan clan. He said his client even appeared in a TV ad endorsing then Liberal Party candidate Benigno Aquino III during the 2010 presidential election.

"The same victim has sought asylum because she was threatened. She asked for help from the President and he gave her a bodyguard who was related to the accused. 

Upon discovery that he was a relative of the Ampatuans, that was when she left the country and sought asylum."
"We feel particularly betrayed, so to speak, because we were the victims who stood for him and told him we believe in him and we are starting to regret that we actually did," he added.
The massacre left 58 people, including 32 journalists, dead. The incident, which happened in November 23, 2009, is said to be the Philippines' worst political massacre.

The Ampatuan clan allegedly ordered the massacre to stop a political rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, from running against one of its members for governor of Maguindanao.
Despite strong public clamor, the case is not faring better with no suspect yet convicted.

"Analysts have predicted that with its current pace, the trial could last 24 years at the least," the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said.

In the interview, Roque said the Maguindanao massacre highlights the flaws of the country's justice system that allows cases to drag on for years.

He said that from a human rights perspective, the long process of litigation is an added burden to the victims' families who must present their testimonies every time there is a hearing before the regional trial court.

"This case is an illustration or test case on the criminal justice system. Can you imagine the number of times witnesses have to go back to court and they have to repeat everything they have said pus the fact the issue of security, hiding from people who may cause them harm. It should prompt us to overhaul institutions including witness protection and the use of physical evidence over testimonial evidence," he said.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/22/13/pnoy-assigned-ampatuan-kin-victims-bodyguard-lawyer