Human rights alliance KARAPATAN and HUSTISYA (Victims United for Justice) express their profoundest solidarity with press freedom advocates as they commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre that claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media workers.
The Ampatuan massacre of November 23, 2009 stands as the single deadliest event for journalists worldwide and the worst case of election-related violence in Philippine history.
Every anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre is a stark reminder that the country remains one of the most dangerous places for journalists, second only to Iraq. More than 200 media workers have been killed in the Philippines since 1986. In the first year alone of the Marcos Jr. presidency, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines recorded 84 incidents of attacks on the media, more than 40% higher than the documented cases in Duterte’s first 13 months in office.
Assaults on journalists have not been confined to physical attacks. Laws have been weaponized against them. Community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio who was arrested in February 2020 in Tacloban City is still behind bars on a variety of trumped-up charges. Libel laws continue to be used to harass journalists. The websites of progressive media outfits are constantly under attack. Journalists are red-tagged. Truth-telling has never been more dangerous in the Philippines.
The 16th anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre reminds us how little things have changed for our country’s journalists. While a Quezon City court meted sentences on 44 of the accused in 2019, their convictions are on appeal and may still be overturned given the continuing political and economic power wielded by warlords and political dynasties like the Ampatuans. Scores of the accused remain at large.
For as long as power remains skewed in favor of the Ampatuans and their ilk, journalists caught in the middle of political rivalries will remain in danger. The journalists’ job of speaking truth to power will remain a lethal exercise.
KARAPATAN and HUSTISYA staunchly support calls by press freedom advocates and human rights defenders for justice not only for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre but for all unresolved killings and other attacks on the media.
