Stigma suffered from 2009 Ampatuan Massacre still lingers for clan members
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur (MindaNews) – The members of the Ampatuan clan who have no involvement in the infamous Ampatuan Massacre, also known as Maguindanao Massacre, 13 years ago tomorrow, Wednesday, still suffer the stigma and “feel bad when N
Anwar Emblawa, executive secretary of the Shariff Aguak municipal government, said that apart from the 58 people who were brutally murdered, including 32 media workers, the other victims of the gruesome massacre were the Ampatuan clan members who had no involvement in the heinous crime.
“Right after the massacre, many of our younger clan members surnamed Ampatuan who were studying suffered severe anxiety due to intensive discrimination … Especially those from Luzon, they thought that all the Ampatuan clan members were involved,” said Emblawa, a member of the Ampatuan clan, in Filipino.
“That’s totally unfair. Only some members of the family within the Ampatuan clan were involved. Many of the Ampatuans have become victims too of that massacre,” he added.
He was referring to the stigmatization which, according to him, still lingers today but is not as intense as before.
Speaking on behalf of Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad “Mitra” Ampatuan, Emblawa noted that every time November 23 unfolds, the Ampatuan clan members who have no hands in the crime feel bad for the ghastly memory and the psychological torment brought up by such an atrocious day.
Akmad Ampatuan served as a state witness in the 2009 Ampatuan Massacre, which included as principal suspects the late Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., who died in 2015 while in detention. Andal, Sr. was suffering from liver cancer.
Akmad previously served as a known trusted aide of Andal, Sr. before witnessing against his patron.
Emblawa said that as much as possible, they would opt to keep silent to avoid recalling the ugly scars of the gory manslaughter since the other principal suspects had already been convicted.
In December 2019, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City found Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, his brothers Zaldy and Anwar and 25 other principals guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the November 23, 2009, Ampatuan Massacre.
The court ordered them to pay the heirs of 57 victims a total of 155.5 million pesos for civil indemnity; moral, exemplary, temperate and actual damages; and loss of earning capacity. The court excluded the heirs of the 58th victim, photographer Reynaldo Momay, since “no evidence of his actual death was adduced.”
The Ampatuans appealed the court’s decision.
The Ampatuan Massacre is the worst election-related violence in the country and the single deadliest attack against media workers in the world.
Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, then vice mayor of Buluan town, challenged the grip on power of the
Ampatuans. Mangudadatu sent a convoy composed of female members of his family to file his certificate of candidacy for governor.
The convoy, including the media workers who were covering the event, was waylaid in the town of Ampatuan and herded off to Sitio Masalay, Barangay
Salman where they were peppered with high-powered firearms and buried on freshly dug graves, apparently to hide the crime.
Mangudadatu went on to win the gubernatorial post and served for three consecutive terms.