Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.
— a quote by Henry Grunwald. Former United States Ambassador of Austria.
Philippines, one of the deadliest countries for journalists, reported over 200 journalist killings since 1986. It is no secret that the majority of journalist-related killings involve a public official or a powerful man behind the scheme and sadly, few are only prosecuted. Some even get away with their crimes, a result of a flawed and corrupt justice system that our country possesses, only favoring the rich but not the poor, unfortunate ones.
Among the reported cases of journalist killings, the most famous one and perhaps, the inhumane killing case of all — the Maguindanao Massacre — left bitter and traumatizing experience to the ones working in the field of journalism.
On the 23rd of November 2009, 58 people — 32 of them are journalists and Mangudadatu's wife, two sisters, his aunt and a few female lawyers and some civilians who were thought to be part of the convoy, are killed in beginning hours of the day at the town of Ampatuan in Mindanao. They were supposed to file a COC candidate for Mangudadatu, Ampatuan Jr.'s rival to the seat of provincial governor in the upcoming 2010 elections. Prior to the incident, Mangudadatu has received death threats from unknown senders, telling him that they will "chop him into pieces". He then decided that instead of him, it will be his wife, his two sisters and his aunt who brought a few female lawyers with her, will be the ones filing his COC candidacy in his place in a nearby COC office located in Shariff Aguak. Mangudadatu relied on the Islamic tradition that women are not allowed to be harmed. Additional security involves media persons coming from South Cotabato and General Santos City will be joining his wife's party with the intention of letting them cover the process of filling his candidacy.
There were seven vehicles in total who were part of the convoy but the seventh vehicle decided not to follow as they sensed that something was not right. Before they could even reach their destination, armed men kidnapped the group and brought them to a site where they decided to kill all who were part of the convoy. They were then found a few hours after the incident and Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a "state of emergency" to the provinces of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato in hopes of preventing another incident from happening again. Andal Ampatuan Jr. and the rest of the perpetrators of the incident were then arrested and prosecuted for their crimes.
Thirteen years after the incident, the Maguindanao Massacre lingers in the mind of the journalists and those pursuing to be one. It was a combination of corruption, power-tripping and the failed justice system of the Philippines. Everyday, journalists in our country fears for their life. Whatever they say or do can have a profound effect not only in their life but also to their family's. They live in the constant fear of wishing they will see the light of tomorrow and the days following it.
It is important that we remember the brutality of this crime as a wake-up call of how dangerous it is to fight against the system and the government itself. How we shouldn't believe the flowery words of every politician that presents their "good image" towards us, to stop living in rose-colored tinted glasses and start seeing how dark and cruel the reality of what our country is facing. The problem of some is that they fail to educate themselves of how corrupted our system is, even the most privileged people in our country cannot educate themselves despite the vast majority of materials present on the internet. We blindly believe the words coming from a person's mouth, falsely hoping for a promise of betterment for our country and suffering the consequences of being dazed by these promises that were never fulfilled in the end.
The Maguindanao Massacre will forever live on the memories of the victims' families, the witnesses who have seen the horror of what happened and the rest of the Filipinos witnessing how the story slowly uncovers right before their eyes, of how dangerous it is to live and protect our beloved country.
The truth was and will never be buried — that is the chilling lesson the Maguindanao Massacre has told the world.
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