President Gloria Arroyo vowed to deliver justice to the 30 journalists who were among the 57 people slain in the Maguindanao massacre on November 23 in Mindanao in southern Philippines. President Arroyo, dressed in black, condoled with the grieving families of six of the murdered journalists at a funeral home in General Santos City on Thursday. She spoke with the widows of the victims and assured them of the government’s action against the masterminds behind the massacre who are believed to be members of a powerful political clan allied with her administration.
The President, accompanied by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, said that the perpetrators of the gruesome killings would be punished Jesus Dureza, the presidential assistant on Mindanao affairs, said that the bereaved families are concerned about the schooling of the victims’ children and how to make ends meet now that the breadwinners of the families are gone.
As a response, the President ordered scholarship grants to the victims’ children. She also handed each family a check for P100,000 as burial assistance.
“She [Mrs. Arroyo] is here and I feel her concern specifically for the young siblings left behind by the victims,” Brenda, elder sister of Leah Dalmacio, who bore the worst beating and wounds among the woman journalists, told The Manila Times.
Dalmacio, who left behind a 2-month-old baby girl, was a correspondent for the Socsargen community newspaper.
Besides Dalmacio, the other journalists whose remains were at the funeral home are Gina de la Cruz and Neneng Montaño of Saksi Balita Mindanaw; Marites Cablitas and Russel Morales of News Focus; and Socsargen publisher Ian Subang.
The remains of the murdered journalists will be buried at a site that will have a concrete landmark and an engraving that will read, “On this site lie the remains of Fourth Estate members that were brutally raped, humiliated and murdered by enemies of press freedom in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.”
UNTV staff
The President also paid her last respects to slain UNTV journalists and staff members Daniel Tiamzon, Jolito Evardo, Victor Nunez and MacDelbert Arriola.
“My deepest condolences to the families and the organizations of the victims of the massacre on November 23,” she said in a statement read at the entrance to the UNTV office.
Mrs. Arroyo also promised to extend the same assistance given to the other six journalists to the slain UNTV personnel.
“I am attending the wake of some of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre as a modest expression of the nation’s outrage and my personal grief and shock over the fate that has befallen these men and women,” she said. “It is a black mark on our nation.”
If there is something good that can come out of the tragedy, the President added, it is to prompt the nation to rededicate itself to the principles of freedom and to eschew political violence.
“I am grieved because I have fought everyday in office to bring peace to this island,” she said. “I will continue to do so until the last minute of my term.”
The slain journalists were part of the convoy that accompanied the wife and other close relatives of Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu of Buluan, Maguindanao, who were supposed to file the certificate of candidacy for governor of the vice mayor. The members of the group, numbering 57, were abducted and executed in a remote farming area.
ANGELO S. SAMONTE WITH REPORTS FROM AL JACINTO AND ISAGANI P. PALMA
The Manila Times
Friday, 04 December 2009 00:00
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