30 days ‘a short time to wait’ for Maguindanao Massacre decision –lawyer

The 30-day extension on the deadline for a court's decision on the Maguindanao Massacre case was a "short time" compared to the decade victims' families have waited, their lawyers and a media safety group said Friday.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes was supposed to decide on the multiple murder case by November 20, but asked the Supreme Court for an extension because of the "voluminous" records involved.

The SC gave her until December 20, with no extensions, to render a decision.

"We have waited for 10 years, the 30 days is a short time to wait," said private prosecutor Nena Santos, who represents the families of 38 of 58 massacre victims.

Former Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, counsel for the other families, issued a similar statement and added that "it is wrong that it took this long."

"The Maguindanao Massacre trial should trigger systemic changes in our justice system?," said Roque, urging the adoption of an "inquisitorial system where judges procure the evidence from lawyers after defining the issues.

For his part, Joel Egco, the executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, said he was optimistic that victims' families would finally get justice.

"It is worth the wait. What is one month compared to ten years? Lower courts usually go on Christmas break in mid-December. So the Decision may be out by December 14,” he said in a statement posted on the task force's Facebook page.

Fifty-eight people, 32 of whom were journalists, were killed in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 in what was considered to be the Philippines' worst case of election-related violence and the single deadliest attack on journalists in history.

The trial of more than a hundred people charged, including 15 surnamed Ampatuan, lasted nine years, seeing the presentation of 357 witnesses and resulting in 238 volumes of case records. — DVM, GMA News