FOCAP, NUJP call for ‘acceptable’court decision on Maguindanao massacre

 Almost a decade after the Maguindanao massacre, local and international journalists are hoping that the promulgation of verdict for over a hundred suspects in the gruesome crime will give justice to the 58 victims and their families.

Thirty-two of the victims were media workers accompanying the camp of then-gubernatorial candidate Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu who challenged the political power of the Ampatuan clan in the province for the 2010 elections.

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) demanded "a closure that will bring all perpetrators, especially the masterminds, to justice."

"No other outcome is acceptable. Not one more day of delay can be justified," it said in a statement.

"Convictions of the perpetrators and full recompense of the victims’ families will be a first step in reversing the long and tragic injustice," it added.

The FOCAP also urged the government to uphold the constitutional rights of journalists against all forms of attack.

"We will not stop doing our journalism that’s accurate, fair and courageously independent for all the right reasons. Journalism advances public interest. Journalism buttresses democracy and the rule of law. Journalism is not a crime," it said.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) likewise hopes that the suspects behind what was considered the country's worst election-related violence and deadliest single attack against journalists will be jailed.

"It takes ten years to find justice. It says a lot about not only our judicial system. It says a lot about our system of governance," NUJP chairperson Nonoy Espina said.

"This verdict does not end the struggle for genuine press freedom. We still have more than a hundred colleagues murdered who have yet to be given justice," he added.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 is expected to decide the criminal cases in connection with the Maguindanao massacre on or before December 20. —LDF, GMA News