Ampatuan Massacre: 10-year wait for lower court’s ruling, 6-year wait for CA ruling
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 November) – It took ten years and one month for the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City to convict 43 persons led by Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. of 57 counts of murder in December 2019 but six years later, the families of the victims of the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan Massacre are still waiting for the Court of Appeals (CA) to act on the appeals filed by both the perpetrators and the victims.
“Bakit sa dinami-daming pinatay, sapat naman ang ebidensya, bakit nakaabot ng 16 years na wala kaming hustisya?” (So many persons were killed, there were enough evidences but why has it taken 16 years and there is no justice yet?), CenterLaw quoted Ramonita Salaysay, widow of Napoleon Salaysay, in its statement on the 16th anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre.
Salaysay of Mindanao Gazette in Cotabato City, was one of 32 media workers killed on November 23, 2009 in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao (now part of Maguindanao del Sur).
“Partial justice” was how the families of the victims described the ruling then.
CenterLaw Philippines, which handles the case for the families of 19 victims will file an urgent motion before the CA on Monday, November 24, for the appellate court to “finally resolve the pending appeals in the Maguindanao massacre cases without further delay and reiterating judicial recognition for the 58th victim, Reynaldo ‘Bebot’ Momay.”
On November 23, 2009, a convoy of vehicles led by Bai Genalin Mangudadatu, wife of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu, was passing through Shariff Aguak town on the way to the Commission on Election’s office at the provincial capitol there to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao. About a hundred armed men led by then Datu Unsay town mayor Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr., stopped the convoy and herded them off at gunpoint to Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan, town where they were massacred, some of them buried, along with three vehicles, using a backhoe of the provincial government of Maguindanao.
In her 761-page decision handed down on December 19, 2019, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of RTC 221 in Quezon City found Andal Ampatuan Jr., his brothers Zaldy and Anwar and 25 other principals guilty beyond reasonable doubt for 57 counts of murder.
Andal Ampatuan, Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay town at the time of the massacre had planned to run unopposed as Governor of Maguindanao in the 2010 elections. Mangudadatu was going to challenge him for the gubernatorial post. Ampatuan’s elder brother, Zaldy, then on his second term as Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Days after the verdict was handed down, Andal Jr. and Zaldy opted separately, to appeal the decision before the Court of Appeals while another brother, Anwar, then mayor of Shariff Aguak town, and his sons Anwar Jr. aka Datu Ipi and Anwar Sajid aka Datu Ulo, filed a motion for reconsideration before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City.
The families of the victims also appealed the ruling on the “civil aspect of the Consolidated Partial Decision dated 19 December 2019, for being contrary to the facts, jurisprudence, applicable laws, and pertinent provisions of the Revised Rules of Court.”
Judge Solis in December 2019 ordered the principals to pay the heirs of 57 victims a total of 155.5 million pesos for civil indemnity; moral, exemplary, temperate and actual damages; and loss of earning capacity.
The amounts vary, with 350,000 pesos as the lowest and 23.56 million pesos as the highest.
All 57, according to the ruling, will receive 350,000 pesos each for civil indemnity (100,000 pesos), moral damages (100,000), exemplary (100,000). Most were given temperate damages of 50,000 pesos as their claimed actual damages were not accepted for lack of receipts and other evidence. The total amounts for each victim vary due to actual damages and loss of earning capacity.
Those who appealed the ruling on the civil aspect are the heirs of victims Mcdelbert Arriola, Gina Dela Cruz, Jose “Jhoy” Duhay, Jolito Evardo, Santos “Jun” P. Gatchalian, Eduardo and Cecil Lechonsito, Bienvenido Legarta Jr., Lindo Lupogan, Rey Merisco, Marife Montaño, Victor Nuñez, Joel V. Parcon, Alejandro P. Reblando Sr., Napoleon Salaysay, Francisco Subang, Jephon Cadagdagon and Daniel Tiamzon.
But no payment of damages can be made as the case is still on appeal.
Atty. Gilbert T. Andres, CenterLaw Executive Director, told the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on November 22 that the heirs of the victims have been waiting so long for “full justice.”
Andres said the CA’s last resolution was on March 15 this year where it denied Zaldy Ampatuan’s motion for additional evidence, denied the motion to admit bail of a police colonel and the third resolution was on the withdrawal of appeal by an accused.
“But as of now, the appeals have not yet been deemed submitted for resolution. So we are still waiting for the decision on the appeal,” he said, adding that the families they represent have been suffering for so long “and they’re still suffering from that trauma” especially when it’s nearing the anniversary.
“Gusto na nilang resolution ng CA kahit anuman yun. Basta magkaroon po sila ng closure kasi hindi pa rin kumpleto yung justice na kanila pong tinatamasa” (They want the CA resolution whatever that may be so they can have closure because what they have now is incomplete justice), he added.
The family of Reynaldo Momay, the 58th victim, also appealed the “57 counts of murder” ruling as it did not include Momay’s name. The court said that “whether Momay died or was missing” after November 23, 2009 “could not be ascertained as no evidence of his actual death was adduced.”
“He has no cadaver and neither was his death certificate presented on record,” the court said.
Momay’s daughter, Reynafe Castillo, a nurse now based in the United States, wrote on the 16thanniversary of the massacre that for 16 years now, “our family has carried an invisible grief — one that is made heavier by the fact that my father’s name still waits to be acknowledged in full as a victim of this brutal massacre. And yet, despite the pain, we continue to stand because we know he deserves to be remembered, honored, and recognized.”
“Today, on the 16th year of the Maguindanao Massacre, I speak not only for myself, but for every child, every parent, every family who lost someone that day. Let us continue to demand justice. Let us continue to speak their names.
And let us continue to fight until every victim—including my father, Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay—receives the recognition they deserve,” she wrote. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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