END IMPUNITY. JUSTICE NOW!
This is the battlecry of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Davao Chapter as they held a candle lighting event at Freedom Park, Roxas Ave., Davao City in remembrance of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
The event also served as a call to address media killings and unresolved cases of missing journalists all over the country.
In a press statement, NUJP Davao expressed their continuing grief and outrage because “justice remains elusive to the victims, especially to the 32 journalists who were mercilessly killed in a single day” at Sitio Masalay, Brgy. Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao- the biggest in history.
NUJP Davao further condemned the failure of the former administration to bring justice to the bereaved families, stressing that Ampatuan family was able to regain foothold in their political strongholds and maintain their wealth.
Attending the event, Ryan Amper, Mindanao-wide secretariat of National Union of Peoples Lawyers of the Philippines expressed his hopes that the Duterte administration will be able to address the long-due imperative, pointing out the leader’s records as mayor of Davao City whose ways was able to carry out immediate justice.
Meanwhile, in a press statement from NUJP national office secretariat Dabet Panelo, he affirmed that this is the high time to be journalists adding that Philippine press is most needed by the people these days.
The secretariat also expressed alarm on the current national leader stressing President Duterte’s “disregard of human rights”.
“Today, even as we commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre, we see a resurgence of threats and assaults on the independent Philippine press fueled by the open contempt and hostility of a leader who would crook absolutely no criticism of his person or his policies,” stressed Panelo.
