After 5 years, Ampatuan farmers back at Maguindanao massacre site

AMPATUAN, Maguindanao - It’s been close to five years now since the Maguindanao Massacre took place here in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman of this town.

 

At that time, 58 people, including 32 media workers, were killed in broad daylight in the worst case of election-related violence in the country's history. The gunmen allegedly led by members of the Ampatuan political clan shot to death the family of Esmael Mangudadatu who were on their way to the Commission on Elections office to file his certificate of candidacy accompanied by media. 

But unlike before, hope has started to surface as former resident farmers are starting to coming back to till their farms. New houses have been built and a small community is seen around  the mass grave.

 

Acrima Abdulkarim, 42, is living with her son, daughter, and son-in-law, a farmer, in a small shanty 50 meters downhill from the landmark grave.

 

Acrima said they are no longer afraid of coming back to this place, knowing the security situation has stabilized. Her family makes a living planting corn and other crops for their everyday needs in the village of Salman.

 

“Some asked, are we not afraid of the victims' ghosts who may show up? I said I am more afraid of seeing those living gunmen that roam around in this community,” Acrima said in the Maguindanaon dialect.

 

Asked to recall where she was during the carnage, she answered, “We were doing our daily farming routine a kilometer away from the massacre site. We could only hear gunfire,” she revealed.

 

Upon learning about the massacre, they left their house for fear armed men will visit them.

 

More than a year after, they were back.

 

The road is better now. A cemented road is almost complete. Trees planted have grown and a military post was stationed nearby.

 

A new sari-sari store was also put up around 200 meters away from the mass grave.

 

Another resident said the establishment of a multimillion-peso 1,500-hectare cavendish banana plantation at the massacre complex has lured many farmers to stay here and make a living in Barangay Salman.

 

The local government of Ampatuan town wanted to change the image of this parcel of land from a gloomy one into an economic Halal hub complex.

 

No more hopes the case will end in 2016

 

Glen Salaysay, youngest son of Cotabato-based media worker Napoleon Salaysay who was one of the 32 reporters killed in the massacre, said he has lost all hope the case will end during the term of President Benigno Aquino III. Aquino's term ends in 2016.

 

Salaysay is now working as a regular employee at the Maguindanao provincial capitol. He got hired after his graduation four years ago and was granted a plantilla position last year.

 

What saddens him is the dispute between the private prosecutors of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and public prosecutors headed by Usec. Francisco Baraan III over accusations of bribery and alleged sabotaging of the case. Baraan vehemently denied the allegations.

 

“Until when are we going to wait for the judgment? It’s been five years now and still I ask in my mind, is justice really at work in this country? So slow. Hopefully the DOJ [Department of Justice] is still with us,” he said.

 

Even Justice Sec. Leila De Lima, who recently took over as head of the government prosecution panel, could not guarantee a conviction by 2016. She however assured the families that the efforts of the prosecution are geared toward achieving the conviction of even only one of the principal accused members of the Ampatuan family.

 

Mangudadatu has appealed to both the government and private prosecution panels to talk and settle their quarrels. It is the defense panel who is benefitting from their dispute, he said.

 

“It might affect our case. The defense panel could use the prosecutors’ squabble to their advantage. So I appeal to both panels to talk and settle once and for all the misunderstanding, because at the end, we the victims are at a disadvantage here,” Mangudadatu said.

 

Mangudadatu stressed he is confident that with De Lima heading the prosecution panel, the case will prosper even if there is a delay. The slow pace is better than nothing, though. He said he is still willing to wait.

 

“Slowly but surely. We don’t want to fall wrong here or else everything will be lost,” Mangudadatu said. —KG, GMA News