THE PHILIPPINES’ FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS SINCE 1981 www.expatphilippines.ph
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December 6-19, 2015 Vol. XXXIV No. 5
The quaint province of Quirino celebrated unity and diversity as it recently celebrated its 44th founding anniversary and Panagdadapun Festival. Literally meaning “gathering” in the Ilocano language, Panagdadapun gathered the municipal festivals of the various towns which reflected the province's rich cultural diversity. Punctuating the celebration were various socio-civic and sporting events capped by a grand street parade which put to the fore the pride of place of the province’s six towns. Quirino governor Junie Cua said that the celebrations highlighted the economic, political and governance gains the province has achieved since its creation in 1971.
Six years of injustice: The Maguindanao Massacre W
APEC 2015 recap by VIA BAROMA
by CHING DEE
58
lives. 58 murders. 198 suspects charged. 0 convictions. This is the summary of the Maguindanao Massacre—the worst incident of election-related violence in the Philippines, and what the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) cites as “the single deadliest attack” on members of the media. On November 2009, when Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu decided to run for governor in the 2010 elections, his pregnant wife Genalyn chose to submit his certificate of candidacy for him. Her sister, their team of legal counsel, and 32 members of the media joined her to cover the filing. None of them made it alive out of Barangay (village) Salman in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao on November 23, 2009.
Justice delayed It has been six years since the heinous crime made international headlines, but to this day, there have been no convictions made to implicate the political family of Ampatuan in Maguindanao or the other people responsible. Emily Rauhala of Time.com wrote in November 2014, “By now, the awful details of what happened that day are well established: [58] people... were stopped, executed by gunmen, and buried on site. It was a brutal, sloppy job; the executioners, it seems, were not worried about getting caught.” All in all, roughly 198 people were charged for involvement in the massacre. The hearings—which called for over 150 witnesses (four of which have been killed), hundreds of hours in litigation, and thousands of pages
of impertinent documents and narratives— haven’t produced a single conviction as of November 2015. Justice denied In a special report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the massacre’s 6th anniversary, the kin of the victims “are losing hope they will get justice during the term of President Aquino.” An exasperated Mangudadatu tells the Philippine Daily Inquirer in the same report, “We already presented witnesses who testified that Unsay (Andal Jr.) and the other accused were the ones behind the massacre. What else does the court need?” Even the imprisonment of several highvalue suspects have been questioned and page 2 one of them, Datu Sajid Islam
ith over 10,000 delegates, including some 1,300 chief executive officers and heads of 21 economies from all over the world converging here in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting on Nov. 18 to 19, the government declared the Philippines’ hosting of the APEC Summit a success. Much was made by netizens of the tight security measures enforced to ensure the safety of the economic leaders and delegates in Manila. Road closures and rerouting schemes of major highways such as EDSA and Roxas Boulevard, which resulted in traffic disruptions in the metro, resulted in a public outcry, with motorists and commuters unceasingly complaining of the inconvenience brought about by the event, while several flights were also cancelled to make way for the arrival and departure of the heads of 21 economies participating for the summit. Now that the big week is finally over, Filipinos have a lot of questions rummaging in their minds: What does this hosting page 3