TINIG NG PLARIDEL
FRIDAY / 25 NOVEMBER. 2016
YEAR 38, ISSUE 6 The official student publication of the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines Diliman tinigngplaridel tinigngplaridel.net
Students call to end impunity on 7th Ampatuan Massacre commemoration
Calling for justice and the end to the persisting cycle of impunity, media practitioners, student journalists and family members of the victims of the Ampatuan Massacre, marched to Mendiola, Manila to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the single deadliest attack on the press, Nov. 23. / Krysten Mariann Boado
Inna Cabel & Victoria Uy
SEVEN YEARS SINCE 58 LIVES were claimed in the Ampatuan Massacre, the calls of various media and student groups remain the same--break free from the culture of impunity. In commemoration of the massacre’s 7th anniversary, student leaders launched Tanggulan, a youth network for the defense of human rights and civil liberties at a press conference held at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Communication (CMC), Nov 23. “Ngayon higit kailanman nakikita natin ang pangangailangan para sa isang unified campaign sa isang unified protest-struggle for a genuine change mula sa pagsasamasama ng iba’t-ibang sektor,” said Tanggulan convenor and CMC Representative to the University
Student Council Hazel Lobres. Lobres cited the state neglect experienced during super typhoon Yolanda, the Hacienda Luisita Massacre, the drug-related killings brought about by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration as well as the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as manifestations of impunity. International media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists listed the Philippines as fourth in their 2016 global impunity index. The Philippines’ ranking was “cemented by its failure to prosecute any perpetrators behind the 2009 massacre in Maguindanao where 32 journalists and media workers were brutally murdered.” To date, 197 people are accused and 106 are on trial, but no one has been convicted. The main suspect, former
Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. already died of a heart attack in July last year. His son, Sajid, was able to run for mayor in Shariff Aguak town in the 2016 elections, but lost to his cousin, Marop Ampatuan. Both are relative newbies to the political scene in a clan active in government since 2001. Meanwhile, Dabet CastanedaPanelo of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urged the “millennial generation” to become bearers of truth in accordance with the current calls of historical revisionism. “Kasalanan na yung makalimot ngayon,” Castaneda said during the press conference. “Di dapat tayo makalimot. Di dapat tayo tumigil na maningil.” UP Diliman students, faculty, and staff also showed solidarity in a human chain protest in
front of the Quezon Hall, bearing calls condemning the culture of impunity and challenging Duterte to be accountable for the injustices under his administration. “Wala pong ibang solusyon dito kung hindi gamitin natin ang ating mga lente, mga bolpen, ating talino, at ating kakayahan sa pagsulat upang ipakita sa mga naghaharing-uri na hindi tama ang kanilang ginagawa,” said CMC Student Council Journalism Representative Mikko Ringia. “Malakas ang kapangyarihan natin kapag sama-sama tayong kumilos,” he added. Earlier, members of the Ampatuan Massacre victims’ family and various student groups and also marched to Mendiola, Manila to commemorate the single deadliest crime against the press in recent history that took the lives of their kin.
ISSUE 6 / FRI. NOV. 25, 2016
EDITORIAL | PAGE 2
Conquering Oblivion
JUSTICE DELAYED IS justice denied--yet as the years go by, those who remember the heinous Ampatuan Massacre dwindle as the government, among others, teeters on the brink of forgetting. Seven years after the harrowing event that claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media workers, administrations have grown comfortable, allowing the massacre’s perpetrators to roam free and continue to hold government office. Despite former President Benigno Aquino III’s promise to deliver justice for the victims of the world’s single deadliest attack on the press, the slain and their kin have yet to attain justice - a testament to the persistent cycle of impunity in the Philippines. Numbers of those who remember continue to slide along with suspects continuing to slip from the slow grind of the country’s scales. Only last year, Ampatuan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., the alleged mastermind behind the attack, died due to natural causes. Unlike the bodies of the slain 58, buried with a backhoe, the older Ampatuan was given a proper burial in Sharif Aguak. While his family has remains to mourn, one more body of a massacre
Illustration by: Aya Saunar
victim has yet to be found and laid to rest, according to media watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The injustices brought about by the Ampatuan Massacre is mirrored by the political accommodation granted to the family of the late dictator and former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr - another manifestation of the culture of impunity. This political accommodation has paved way to historical revisionism with recent secret interment of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. With the Supreme Court (SC) favoring the decision to grant the deceased despot a hero’s burial at the LNMB,
Marcos - the man behind 70,000 illegally detained individuals, 34,000 torture victims and 1,000 enforced disappearances - has now been transformed into an individual worthy of inspiration and emulation of this generation and generations still unborn, as per Republic Act 289, Sec. 1. Similar to the kin of those slain in the Ampatuan Massacre, families of Martial Law victims await elusive justice after 44 years, only to be rewarded with President Rodrigo Duterte’s support for the SC decision and the unannounced burial of Marcos on Nov. 18. Such acts continue to deceive the public about democracy,
showing that the putrid justice system favors those in power and position, further illustrating that the ruling class runs the country and perpetuates the culture of impunity. While the president brandishes his war on crime and drugs, the victims of what has clearly become a war on the poor are but notches added to the list of forgotten and soon-to-be forgotten names and faces fallen in the cycle of injustice - a cycle we cannot break free from unless we choose to, a cycle we cannot break free from unless we rise together. With threats of forgetting hanging above our heads, the challenge to destroy the shackles of impunity has now become stronger than ever. Despite Philippine society’s present veneration for iron fists in guises of Duterte and Marcos that continue to tie the masses to the same chain that led to Martial Law and the Maguindanao Massacre, the call to remember is the battlecry we must carry to the streets. Proving true that power lies in the people and in their struggle to attain freedom and defense for human rights. It is high time the Filipino people free themselves from the bonds that have restrained them for so long. We can no longer let those in power be the victors.
Students from UP, Ateneo and Miriam held a protest at Katipunan Avenue in codemnation of the Hero’s Burial of the former President and dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., Nov. 18. / Mikhaela Dimpas
TINIG NG PLARIDEL 2016 - 2017
Editor-in-Chief Krysten Mariann Boado Associate Editor for Print Pathricia Roxas Associate Editor for Broadcast Shain Epanag Managing Editor Dale Calanog News Editor Frances Josephine Espeso Features Editor Beatriz Zamora Sports Editor John Remil Isaga Chief Photographer Mariel Frances Urbiztondo Layout Director Mikhaela Dimpas Art Director Renee Cuisia | Writers Luz Wendy Noble, Inna Cabel, Victoria Uy, Teresa Barre | Photographers Krysten Mariann Boado, Mikhaela Dimpas | Illustrator Aya Saunar | Researchers Pathricia Roxas, Dale Calanog, Beatriz Zamora Contact tinigngplaridel@gmail.com | twitter.com/tinigngplaridel | facebook.com/tinigngplaridel TNP is a member of UP Solidaridad and College Editors Guild of the Philippines
PAGE 3 | FEATURES
Thousands rise against Marcos secret burial Luz Wendy Noble & BeatrizZamora / With reports from Theresa Barre
IN A MOMENT OF UTMOST rage, the streets of Katipunan echoed the cries of the Filipino heroes of the collective it was named after. Thousands of students from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and Miriam College marched to the historic avenue in protest of the unannounced interment of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), Nov. 18. For them, burying the dictator among heroes erases a whole new era of cruelty and tyranny in Philippine history, wherein Marcos’s declaration of Proclamation 1081 on Sept. 21, 1972 left thousands of its victims still awaiting justice until today. Among the throng of students expressing their dissent towards the dictator’s burial were firsthand witnesses to the harsh reality of Martial Law. Although he is presently recognized for his role as UP Diliman’s Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs, Dr. Nestor Castro recalled his imprisonment during the Marcos regime. At 23, Castro was arrested without the presentation of a warrant, with authorities preventing him from contacting his lawyer as prescribed by the law. He was held in solitary confinement at Camp Dangwa, Benguet for an entire year. During a certain point in his captivity, Castro was forced to drink his own urine due to the absence of water. After the fall of the Marcos administration, the UP vice chancellor’s imprisonment was declared baseless by the Supreme Court. In his speech at the solidarity program held along Katipunan in front of Miriam College, he expressed
his sentiments on the youth’s initiative to join forces against Marcos’ burial. “Ang hindi namin natapos ng aming panahon ay inyong ipagpapatuloy. Natutuwa rin akong nagkakaisa ang ating tatlong unibersidad,” Castro said. Bo n i fa ci o Ilaga n , le ad con ve n or of C am p ai g n A ga i n st t h e R e t u r n of t h e Marcose s t o Malacañ an g (CARMMA), share d Castro’s se n t i me n t s re gar di n g t h e yo u t h move m e n t . Like the UP Vice Chancellor, Ilagan carries the burden of the cruelties he went through at the onset of Martial Law. His identity as a teenage activist brought him to a fate shared by 70,000 other Filipinos who were subjected to human rights violations during Marcos’ reign. In 1974, Ilagan was imprisoned and tortured. He was released within the same year, but Ilagan soon found that his freedom came with a great cost--he soon learned that his sister Rizalina had become one of the desaparecidos under Marcos’ responsibility. Forty-two years later, Ilagan’s sister is among the ranks of those still missing. Tracing back EDSA On the same fateful day, groups and individuals who likewise condemned the hasty Marcos burial also gathered in the People Power Monument at White Plains Avenue. The Coalition Against the Marcos Burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (CAMB), iDefend and Akbayan Youth led the protest rally in EDSA The same grounds witnessed the bloodless People Power in 1987 that became an instrument to the ouster
FRI. NOV. 25, 2016 / ISSUE 6 of then President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., the same man buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani 26 years after. The mob continued to accumulate anti-Marcos protesters, including students from UP, ADMU, De La Salle University (DLSU), University of Santo Tomas (UST), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), San Beda College (SBC) and even from Xavier High School (XHS). One of them was James Alih, a Moro student of San Beda who came from Mindanao. He expressed his dismay over his fellow Bedan, President Rodrigo Duterte, for having allowed the burial to take place in secret. “Sinasabi sa amin… ’magmove-on na lang kayo’... Paano kami magmomove-on kung hindi pa rin nabibigyan ng hustisya ‘yung nangyari sa Jabidah Massacre?” Alih said. The Jabidah Massacre happened on March 18, 1968 in Corregidor. At least 23 Moros were killed by military men from the secret commando unit called Jabidah. The unit was supposedly assigned by Marcos for operations that would reclaim Sabah. DLSU student Manuel Jopson, echoed Alih’s call for justice. Jopson is the grandson of Edgar “Edjop” Jopson, an activist killed at the height of Martial Law. Edjop is remembered for his dauntless visit to Malacanang to challenge Marcos to not seek another term, as well as to put it into writing. “Ang kamatayan ng isang kamag-anak ay hindi paglimot. Ngunit…tayo’y makakaangat dahil sa malakas ang ating boses,” Jopson said. “Tayo’y maririnig ng
administrasyon na ito, nitong tutang administrayon na ito na walang pakundangan.” Apart from the ranks of students, there were also those who came from their workplaces. Also joining the crowd were Martial Law survivors themselves. There were chanting and singing. Noel Cabangon jammed with the crowd as he sang Tatsulok and Bayan Ko. Protesters also called out motorists to express their dismay over the secret Marcos burial. Some motorists joined the call by honking their horns, opening their windows, and raising their fists. Some even attached their own placards with calls of protests in their cars. Some constituents who came from the Katipunan protests also walked to the People Power monument. By the time the program ended, there was an estimate of around 5,000 people from different walks of life who voiced out their rage against the Marcos burial at the LNMB. Many stayed at the People Power Monument even after the program. Authors of history Despite the recent circumstances and the justice that has yet to dawn to victims of the Jabidah Massacre, Alih is hopeful and grateful to the youth for being vocal and willing to stand firm on national issues, including the Marcos burial. “Darating ang panahon kami rin ang mamumuno at kami rin ang magbibigay ng hustisya sa mga taong hindi niyo nabigyan CONT. TO P4
Thousands of students from neighboring schools UP, Ateneo and Miriam gather at Katipunan Avenue to protest the sudden burial of former President and dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Nov. 18. / Mariel Urbiztondo
FEATURES | PAGE 4
YEAR 38 / ISSUE 6
12 YEARS, 0 JUSTICE Graphics: Renee Cuisia
CONT. FROM P3
THOUSANDS RISE... ng hustisya,” he said. With fists raised in solidarity against Marcos’ burial and historical forgetting, the spirit of the movement which overthrew the dictator is revived in the protesters’ eyes. For the youth of Katipunan, this is a legacy. “Alam na alam natin kung ano ang ating papel sa paglikha ng kasaysayan na napatunayan ng mga naunang henerasyon ng mga kabataan,” said UP Diliman University Student Council councilor Ben Te.
History is written by the victors, they say. But the true story is yet to unfold; still being written, rewritten, verified and corrected by those who went out to the streets to voice out their opposition to Marcos’ burial. It is time the masses take back this task. With the government’s decision to lay the dictator to rest among this country’s heroes, the fight for human rights and civil liberties still has a long way to go.
N O T E: Tinig ng Plaridel’s sixth issue is a special issue for the commemoration of the Ampatuan - Maguindanao Massacre, the state neglect for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, and the Hacienda Luisita Massacre. TNP is one with the broad array of masses in calling for an end to impunity.