Media killings task force seen to hasten Maguindanao massacre case proceedings —Malacañang

The presidential task force on media killings ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte is seen to hasten proceedings of the Maguindanao Massacre, Malacañang said Sunday.

"Of course. That has always been the cry of people in the media and concerned quarters that our country and we will advise, we will recommend to the President that the past cases should be reviewed and you know what they say that justice denied is certainly injustice," Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in an interview over state-run dzRB radio.

The Philippines was put under global scrutiny after the Maguindanao Massacre where 58 people, including 32 journalists, were brutally killed in the conflict-wracked southern province of Maguindanao in November 2009.

The case has yet to be resolved, with one of the main suspects — Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, even dying before any progress has been made.

He died at a government hospital in Manila in July 2015 after he slipped into a coma following a heart attack.

"And it’s about time, I believe, that current Secretary of the Department of Justice [Vitaliano Aguirre II] also would agree to me that we should hasten all of the past cases and give justice to those families who have been victimized by the overdue process, the overdue process," Andanar said.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has said that 176 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since democracy was restored in 1986.

Andanar said the draft administrative order creating the presidential task force has been completed and awaiting the approval of the President.

"Sa ngayon po ay tapos na rin po ‘yung draft ng administrative order and legal counsel led by the Secretary (Salvador) Panelo and the other lawyers under the Office of the Executive Secretary are scheduled to do this for the President’s approval," he said.

"...That’s the point, that’s the objective, that’s the goal of this - to put a final period or exclamation point in finding out the root of these unnecessary and illegal killings of our brothers and sisters in the media," he added. —ALG, GMA News