Orphan sees closure after massacre decision

MANILA -- A decade after the bloody fate of her father, 15-year-old Shandy Morales hopes to see justice and closure with the promulgation of judgment on the Maguindanao Massacre Thursday.

Shandy lost her father, Rosell Morales of News Focus, at the age of five. Along with 57 others, Morales suffered a gruesome death in what the world describes as the single worst case of journalist killings in history.

“Wala po akong ibang nararamdaman kung hindi kaba, kung ano nga ba ang resulta ng paghihintay namin ng dekada, kung ito ba ay pabor sa amin o ikakagagalit pa namin o ikakalungkot namin (I feel nervous about the outcome if the results we’ve been waiting for a decade will be in favor to us or one that would disappoint us),” she said in an interview with state-run PTV4.

In the past 10 years without her father, Shandy narrated how life had been tough for her and her siblings, with only their mother taking care of them.

“Mag-isang ina lang po ang nagtataguyod sa amin kaya napakahirap talaga ng buhay. Sa pang-araw-araw namin simula noong mawala ang ama ko ay everyday po kaming naghihirap kasi walang trabaho ang ina ko tapos tatlo pa kami (My mother is a single mom so it’s difficult for her. Every day since my father’s death, life has been tough because my mother has no job and there are three of us she had to take care of),” she said.

Shandy, wearing a black shirt with the words “Freedom for Media Freedom for All” is with her family in General Santos City, waiting for the verdict.

With the court handing its judgment after a decade-long trial on the case, Shandy has this as a message to his father:

“Ito pong araw na ito ‘Pa, ito na ang matagal