Justice remains elusive three years after Maguindanao massacre

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS

‘The flip-flop is the latest of several “bad developments” besetting the quest for justice of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre.'

TALK of perfect timing.

Eleven days before the third anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre that killed 58 people, 32 of them members of media, the Supreme Court granted the petition of the primary accused – former mayor Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr . to ban live broadcast of the trial.

It’s another step backward to the principle of transparency that is supposedly an attribute of a working democracy.

Ampatuan told the high court that a June 2011 decision penned by then Associate Justice now Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales allowing live coverage of the trial deprived him of his right to due process, equal protection, presumption of innocence, and to be shielded from degrading psychological punishment.

In reversing the Carpio-Morales decision, the SC in a resolution released last Monday said: “While this court recognizes the freedom of the press and the right to public information, which by the way are rights that belong to non-direct parties to the case, the rights of the direct parties should not be forgotten. In a clash among these competing interests and in terms of the values the Constitution recognizes, jurisprudence makes it clear that the balance should always be weighed in favor of the accused.”

The court also said “a camera that broadcasts the proceedings live on television has no place in a criminal trial because of its prejudicial effects on the rights of the accused individuals.”

Carpio-Morales set conditions on the live media coverage of the massacre trial among them were:

- There will be a single camera stationed inside the courtroom and all the other cameras will take its live feed from that camera so that SC-PIO will be putting a camera inside the courtroom and all other stations whether TV or radio will be getting their live feed.

- The broadcasting of the proceedings for a particular day must be continuous in its entirety excepting such portions where the Rules of Court excludes broadcast.

- To provide a faithful and complete broadcast of the proceedings, no commercial break or any other gap shall be allowed until the day’s proceedings are adjourned except during period of recess called by the trial court and during portions of the proceedings where the public is ordered excluded.

- The proceedings shall be broadcast without any voiceovers except brief annotations of scenes.

News reports said President Aquino was dismayed over the SC decision and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said it was “bad development” in what is described as the “trial of the century in the Philippine justice system.”

The flip-flop is the latest of several “bad developments” besetting the quest for justice of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre.

Even while the Ampatuans are in jail, the murders still continue among those suspected to pin down the Ampatuans in the most heinous crime that humanity has experienced. 

One of them was Suwaib Uphamb alias Jessie. He was bodyguard of one of the Ampatuan relatives who participated in the mass murders. Jessie, himself, in an interview with media admitted having fired at and killed some of the 50 victims.

He was not admitted to the Witness Protection Program during the Arroyo administration. He was killed in a public market in Maguindanao in 2010.

The one who has escaped prosecution is Norie Unas, chief of staff of the former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., who allegedly participated in the planning and cover-up of the massacre.

Unas was admitted into the Witness Protection Program to testify in the 2007 election fraud in the election sabotage case against Gloria Arroyo. So far, Unas has not directly implicated Arroyo.

Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, aunt of President Aquino and a senatorial candidate under the United Nationalist Alliance, is reportedly lobbying for the dropping from the list of the accused some policemen who manned the checkpoint the day of the massacre.

After three long years, justice remains elusive for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre. Sad.