From: Toto Causing’s FB Wall

Statement of Alyansa ng Filipinong Mamahayag (Afima) Issued for Afima by its president Jerry S. Yap, who is also a director of National Press Club (NPC)

Students in Koronadal City light candles to demand justice for the killing of at least 32 journalists in the goriest-ever massacre on Nov. 23, 2009 in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

The backhoe used in burying the victims of the massacre now lifts a body from one of the mass graves.

Bodies of the victims of the massacre retrieved from the graves are being covered with banana leaves.

Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) operatives and army soldiers help each other in bringing up a body dug up from one of the three graves.

ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan (middle) looks on as Rep. Digs Dilangalen shakes hand with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Department of Justice’s “acquittal” of Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and his cousin Akmad Ampatuan from the massacre that killed 57, including 32 journalists, in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 robbed justice from the people, the press and the world.

The case is the top interest of the world and the Philippines. It was not about a simple act of murdering persons but the most despicable act of killing human beings including journalists en masse. That act brought extreme shame to the Philippines as the world’s most dangerous place for press freedom practitioners. It is the most contemptuous offense ever against this liberty, against the Filipinos and against the world community.

The ARMM governor was involved in the planning of the massacre as testified to by witness Abdullah Sangki town councilor Mohamad Sangki, who is related to the Ampatuan clan. He disputed the claim of Zaldy that when the massacre occurred the latter was not in the crime scene but in Manila consulting with Malacañang officials on the candidates to be put up by the ruling party in ARMM for the May elections.

Mohamad’s testimonies were already tested against cross-examination in the bail hearing of Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr.

Then Justice Secretary Agnes Torres-Devanadera assured at least two witnesses positively stated the involvement of Zaldy and Akmad in the planning of the massacre. She also said: “We have a witness who can prove that before this (massacre) happened, he (Zaldy) was in a place where the Ampatuans were giving instructions (on how to carry out the massacre).”

These witnesses obviously had no motive to lie because the risk of death is so real for them to state falsities in court, considering that at least four witnesses were already killed, including the one who operated the backhoe in burying the victims’ bodies and their vehicles in three mass graves.

These circumstances are more than enough to justify holding Zaldy and Akmad for trial. Thus, it is contumacious for Justice Secretary Agra to absolve these two Ampatuans. Moreover, Agra has the obligation to the Filipinos, the journalists and the world to refrain from saying who are guilty and who are not. He should let the court decide on this issue.

Given the gravest national and Filipino interest in this case of unprecedented transcendental importance, it is totally unacceptable for the DOJ Secretary to drop the charges of multiple murder against two powerful members of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao.

The DOJ robbed justice from all of us!

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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.