November 21, 2011: Blog Action Day to end impunity

Sunday, 20 November 2011 13:16 Maui A. Hermitanio

As part of the countdown to the second anniversary of Maguindanao massacre and the International Day to End Impunity on November 23, 2011, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) in cooperation with other media groups, will lead a Blog Action Day on November 21, Monday.

NUJP stated that as of today, only two Ampatuans have been arraigned. Only 93 of the 196 accused have been arrested. The 300 and 320 witnesses listed by prosecution and defense lawyers respectively may take 200 years to present to court, according to veteran human rights lawyer and litigator Senator Joker Arroyo.

Meanwhile, the families of the 58 Maguindanao massacre victims – mostly Mindanao based-journalists, continue to suffer from the loss of their loved ones, most were family breadwinners.

NUJP called on all netizens to join the Blog Action Day on November 21. “We would like to invite all bloggers and social media users to use the power of communication and the Internet to speak out for justice and against the continued impunity with which those who wish to suppress freedom of expression impose the ultimate censorship – death – and how the apathy and inaction of government has made this so.”

Some of the facts that bloggers can use:

P3.42B – the IRA allotted to Maguindanao
Maguindanao ranks 6^th in the 10 poorest provinces in the country
55.1 percent is the poverty incidence
2001 – the year Andal Ampatuan Sr. was elected as governor
2005 – the year Zaldy Ampatuan was elected as governor
P1-B – the amount of assets believed to be owned by the Ampatuan clan
55 – number of witnesses that have been presented as of October 10, 2011
300 – number of witnesses listed under the prosecution
320 – the number of witnesses to be presented by the defense
Four witnesses have directly identified Andal Ampatuan Jr. as among those present at the massacre site
Witness Suwaid Jessie Upam was killed even before testifying
Four of the accused who have applied for witness conversion but were denied by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court
196 – the total number of suspects
93 or more than half are in jail
103 of the suspects remain at large
64 of the suspects have been arraigned
62 of the 196 suspects are policemen
82 of the suspects are detained in the Quezon City Jail annex in Camp Bagong Diwa
11 suspects are detained in Camp Crame
28 of the suspects bore Ampatuan as surname
6 Ampatuans are principally accused – Andal Sr., Andal Jr. Zaldy, Akmar, Zahid, only two have been arraigned