Maguindanao massacre victims’ kin ask Duterte to help resolve 6-year case

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Families of the journalists, who were killed in the infamous Maguindanao massacre, have asked incoming president Rodrigo Duterte to expedite the resolution of the case which has dragged on for more than six years now.

Elliver Cablitas, president of Justice Now Movement, urged Duterte to help the families achieve justice under the dispensation of the incoming administration.

He lamented that President Aquino failed in his promise to resolve the case under his administration.

He said that when Aquino was elected President in 2010, he gave the families of the 58 victims an assurance assured that the case will be resolved before his term ends in 2016.

Cablitas’ wife. Maritess, publisher of local weekly tabloid ‘News Focus’, was among the 58 people, 32 of them local journalists, who were massacred by armed men belonging to the political clan of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan.

Government prosecutors indicted Ampatuan and several of his siblings and members of their private armed group for multiple murder cases in connection with the political killing s that took place on November 23, 2009 in a remote village in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

The victim’s families had earlier resented the appointment of lawyer Salvador Panelo, who served as legal counsel of the Ampatuans, as spokesperson of Duterte.

Cablitas said their group was finding ways to seek an audience with Duterte to appeal for help from the incoming President to resolve the case when he assumes the presidency.

“We have already lost our hope on President Aquino who had done nothing to resolve the case and give justice to the victims’ families,” Cablitas, a former policeman, said.