By Aquiles Zonio |
<div>AMPATUAN, Maguindanao – I get the same feeling of indignation and pain every time I set foot on the exact site where the 58 victims, including 32 journalists, were mercilessly mowed down at the Ampatuan massacre.</div>
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<div>It has become a recurring trauma.</div>
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<div>Many of the journalist victims were my close friends, having worked together for many years.</div>
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<div>How could I ever forget Alejandro “Bong” Reblando and Francisco “Ian” Subang?</div>
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<div>Journalists from Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia have attended a security workshop by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), held before their trip to the Philippines, which is considered the most dangerous place in the region for reporters.</div>
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<div>SEAPA held a workshop on working in dangerous areas in the region for journalists who were awarded fellowships to produce in-depth reports on press freedom, media harassment and impunity.
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By Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the November 23 Movement |
<p>The Ampatuan Massacre trial has entered a crucial phase. This week, barely two weeks after the 15th month since 58 men and women including 32 journalists and media workers were brutally murdered in one of the worst attacks on democracy and press freedom in Philippine history, the Court of Appeals will be deciding on the petition for certiorari filed by suspended ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) governor Zaldy Ampatuan.</p>
By Reporters Without Borders |
<p>Exactly one year ago, on 23 November 2009, 32 media professionals were massacred in Maguindanao province, on the southern island of Mindanao, by a private militia controlled by the local governor’s family.</p>
By JOSE JAIME ‘Nonoy’ ESPINA |
<p><em>(On November 23, 2009, a convoy on its way to file the certificate of candidacy of a gubernatorial candidate of Maguindanao province in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao was stopped on the highway in the town of Ampatuan by about a hundred gunmen. The convoy, which included 32 journalists and media workers, female relatives of the candidate, as well as six motorists who just happened to be tailing the convoy, were taken into the hills and murdered.</em></p>
By Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) |
<p>A journalist in the southern Philippine city of General Santos claims that unidentified men have been watching his house. General Santos City is located in the southernmost Philippine island of Mindanao. It is approximately 1,049 kilometers south of Manila.</p>
By Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) |
<p>Ten months after the Ampatuan massacre, the trial of the persons accused of participating in the 23 November 2009 massacre started September 2010.</p>
<p>Fifty-eight persons including 32 journalists and media workers who were on their way to file the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) of Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu were stopped at a checkpoint and killed in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. Andal "Unsay" Ampatuan Jr. allegedly led the killing. (Only 57 bodies were recovered. The body of Reynaldo "Bebot" Momay has yet to be found.)</p>