Media organizations in Cagayan de Oro have applauded the guilty verdict rendered by the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City against the principal suspects and other respondents in the infamous Ampatuan massacre on Thursday (December 19).
The Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC), in a statement immediately following the verdict, expressed jubilation over the decision handed down by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes that ended the decade-long trial.
“The COPC is elated with the guilty verdict on the people behind the 10-year-old Ampatuan massacre, especially the masterminds of the worst election-related violence in the country,” COPC said. “We expected nothing less than a conviction of the individuals who killed 58 people, 32 of whom were our colleagues in media,” it added.
However, COPC called on the Philippine National Police to arrest the remaining 80 suspects who are still at-large. COPC president Ritchie Salloman that it was also "high time for the government to look into the other cases of media-related killings and other abuses against the members of the press all over the country".
Pamela Jay Orias, chairman of the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said the conviction of many of the principal suspects was "the best gift" that the families of the victims have received this Christmas.
"I hope they can now sleep soundly at night knowing that justice has finally been served,” Orias said.
Found guilty by the court for 57 counts of murder were members of the Ampatuan clan including Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr., Anwar Sajid “Datu Ulo” Ampatuan, Anwar “Datu Ipi” Ampatuan Jr., and Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.
The convicted respondents were also ordered by the court to pay the civil indemnity, moral damages, exemplary damages, and loss of earning capacity in varying amounts to the surviving families of the victims.
Source: PNA
