A small crowd of law students and journalists joined three widows of victims of the Maguindanao Massacre at the University of the Philippines Tuesday night to mark the 44th month since the incident, the bloodiest election-related violence in Philippine history.
Cipriana Gatchalian, Ramonita Salaysay, and Editha Tiamzon, whose husbands were among the 32 media workers killed in the incident, expressed disappointment that the case was not mentioned during President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address.
“He promised we would get justice,” Salaysay told the crowd, who lit candles after a short program.
More than 190 have been accused of participating in the killings, including Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Andal Ampatuan Jr. of the powerful Ampatuan clan, and the trial is ongoing. Fifty-eight civilians died when armed men blocked a convoy of members of the rival Mangudadatu clan who were on the way to file the candidacy papers of Esmael Mangudadatu, then running for governor.
Journalists who accompanied the Mangudadatus to cover the event and six people who were traveling on the same road but were not part of the convoy were also killed.
