Murdered journalists buried in General Santos

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – It was a day of mourning here yesterday as eight of the 16 media workers killed in the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre were buried.

Victims Marife Montano, Gina de la Cruz, Marites Cablitas, Eleanor Dalmacio, Ian Subang, Rubell Bataluna, Russel Morales and Ronnie Perante were buried in a mass grave at the Forest Lake Memorial Park. Hundreds attended the interment including members of media groups from South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani.

During the funeral march, government and private employees observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims. Philippine flags outside city hall and in Freedom Park flew at half-mast.

Justice Undersecretary and Task Force on Media Killings chief Ric Blancaflor assured the victims’ families and media groups during the burial ceremonies that the slain journalists would get justice.

“Malungkot at sobrang nakakahiya eto (This is sad and shameful). It is a national shame. Walang sinuman tayong sasantuhin, managot ang dapat managot (We shall spare no one. The guilty shall be made to pay). Let General Santos City be the brightest candle, be the brightest candle of courage at ituloy natin ang laban (and let’s continue the fight),” Blancaflor said.

Another media victim Bong Reblando of the Manila Bulletin will be buried today.

The three remaining victims from UN TV will be buried here tomorrow.

A monument will be erected at the burial site.

 ‘Utmost integrity and devotion’

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights vowed to conduct its investigation into the carnage with “utmost integrity and devotion” to obtaining justice for the victims.

“There is no one government institution that can fully address the Maguindanao massacre,” CHR chairperson Leila de Lima admits.

“In order to ensure a complete and expeditious resolution of the case and impartial levy of justice against all those who must be held accountable, various institutions must work harmoniously towards the same ends of justice,” De Lima said.

The Department of Justice, the Philippine National Police, and the National Bureau of Investigation are also investigating the case.

“The collaboration must extend beyond the investigation of the murders to the extremely tense and volatile situation prevailing in Maguindanao,” she said.

“While the perpetrators are on the run save for one suspect, there are furtive forces that remain and continue to assert a culture of intimidation and impunity throughout Maguindanao,” she added.

“The collaboration between the executive department and the CHR must address the very serious human rights situation that affects all bystanders to the Maguindanao massacre,” she pointed out.

“It is not an abrogation of each institution’s individual mandates, and certainly, the CHR will conduct its investigation independently, as it has always done in the past,” De Lima explained.

“As much as the massacre is a human rights catastrophe, less-than-ardent effort to investigate, prosecute and deliver a just resolution is itself a grave violation of human rights. Even with collaborative efforts with the executive department, the CHR remains firmly independent in its oversight function in relation to the government,” she said.

The CHR also appealed to the public to “preserve their faith in the rule of law, to extend faith to our government and its institutions.”

The CHR has made its own inspection of the mass grave in the outskirts of Ampatuan town in Maguindanao, where it recovered more evidence such as dentures, as well as empty bullet shells that the PNP scene of the crime operatives had apparently missed.

The CHR is set today to resume diggings in the area where it hopes to find the remains of the 58th victim.

A Peruvian forensic anthropologist Jose Pablo Baraybar will lead the recovery operation. – Rose Tamayo-Tesoro, Katherine Adraneda