AFTER 44 days of trial, the world witnessed the guilty verdict passed for Chief Justice Renato Corona, who is now impeached.
Although it took five months to deliver, the conclusion has brought a sigh of relief, a sign that justice in the country may have gained momentum.
It took a long time to enforce the law, but finally some sense of justice has been restored.
While its recuperation is yet to be addressed, the justice system in the Philippines is, once again, called on the spotlight — this time on the progress of the November 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre.
The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but the fight continues for relatives, friends and supporters of the victims of Maguindanao massacre.
More than two years after the gruesome incident, which took 57 lives (32 of which were journalists), the appalling memory still lingers.
The horror continues, after a man who testified against the Ampatuan clan was found dead. His body was found in a sack, “probably chain-sawed to pieces” in a killing meant to silence other witnesses, an official said.
Prosecutor Nena Santos told reporters that Esmail Amil Enog, an employee of the powerful political Ampatuan family, was reported missing last March after he testified in court last year.
According to Enog’s testimony, he was the one who drove a group of Ampatuan’s armed men to where the 57 abducted victims were being held.
Santos refused to divulge further details about how the body was found, fearing that the incident may endanger more lives.
According to Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde, another witness had already been murdered in 2010. He told AFP reports that there were also accounts of relatives of other witnesses being attacked.
“The murder was intended to send a message, to cause a chilling effect to other witnesses,” Conde said.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) assured that they will continue to diligently work on the trial of the Maguindanao massacre case and that time will not be wasted.
Andal Ampatuan Jr., prime suspect of the gruesome killings, has been charged with 25 counts of murder for the massacre. Several witnesses have testified of his part in the killings.
However, about 100 other suspects are still fugitives, many of them armed cohorts of the Ampatuans who still hold influence in the area.
So far, the prosecution panel has presented a continuous flow of witnesses’ testimonies. But the big number of the accused and witnesses to be presented (under direct and cross-examinations) have caused significant delays in the hearings.
Amnesty International, a global non-governmental organization that documents human rights violations in the world, laments the slow pace of the Maguindanao massacre.
“The Philippine government has to show that it has the ability to render justice in a massacre that constituted the world’s worst ever attack on journalists and the world’s worst ever election related single incident that killed 57 people,” the international organization.
Amnesty International emphasized the very slow wheels of justice in the country and called on the authorities to abide by its obligations under international human rights law to ensure effective remedy for victims of the Maguindanao massacre and their families, and to break the continuing impunity.
Meanwhile, one of the private prosecutors of the Maguindanao massacre case urged Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to take the witness stand on the fact-finding conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) following the carnage.
Private counsel Harry Roque of the Center for International Law said they intend to call 20 more witnesses for the “evidence-in-chief” concerning the cases of their clients.
Enog’s death is a reminder of the events that have shocked our sensibilities. It sends an urgent message: for the government to act upon these violations of human rights and freedoms.
Some of the suspects may have been arrested and detained. But justice still remains elusive — until a conviction is passed.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek June 6-8, 2012 Sec A pg.6)
