In their visit to the national police headquarters in Camp Crame, representatives from International Federation of Journalists, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and Southeast Asian Press Alliance met with members of Task Group Maguindanao charged to investigate the killings.
IFJ Consultant Mike Dobbie said that more than four months after the brutal killing of 57 people, they have yet to see justice served to the victims.
“We’d like to see the justice system speed up,” Dobbie said in an interview after their meeting with the police task group.
Dobbie also called on the Department of Justice to make the trial public to ensure transparency.
“We would like the DOJ to ensure us that the trial be made public or a website be put up where all the transcripts of hearings will be uploaded,” Dobbie added.
Dobbie, in his meeting with Task Group Maguindanao spokesman Superintendent Joaquin Alva together with six more members from various media organizations, expressed alarm over the handling of the Philippine National Police of the 63 policemen implicated in the killings.
These policemen were not under arrest but under “restrictive custody.” They were reassigned to the PNP Headquarters Support Service and were allowed to roam freely inside the police camp.
Alva said they cannot act yet on the 63 policemen pending the issuance of warrants of arrest.
“We are waiting for their arrest warrants but all those involved have been reassigned at the HSS. In fact, they are already subjected to administrative cases,” Alva told the group.
“We have no legal basis to put them under arrest,” he added.
But Dobbie said that the possibility that these 63 policemen tagged in the massacre of escaping was “alarming.”
“This is an enormous concern that should be addressed [by the PNP],” Dobbie added.
Dobbie also said that the handling of the police and the courts on the Maguindanao massacre was “reflective of the long culture of impunity” of the country against journalists.
He said that foreign media organizations are set to visit the families of the victims of the massacre in General Santos City.
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