Press Statement
23 November 2010
After a year, the NDFP – Mindanao joins the people in continuing to call for:
JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE!
JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLINGS!
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao (NDFP-Mindanao) joins with the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre, together with media groups and the Filipino people, in demanding for justice and in challenging the Aquino III administration to prosecute and to mete out punishment for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Ampatuan warlords as perpetrators of the said atrocious crime.
A year after the massacre, the process to attain justice has become overly strained and snail-paced under Noynoy Aquino’s watch. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not yet been tried for her complicity in cases of grand malfeasance and of extra-judicial killings during her term. And, thus far, the current regime has offered nothing but the vague assurance that the case against the Ampatuan warlords would be “concluded within its six-year term.”
The Aquino government is not serious and uses kid gloves in prosecuting the Ampatuans and in disbanding their private armies, giving the latter the propensity to downplay the court trials and thrash witnesses with bribe, threats and even murder.
Two senior members of the Ampatuan warlord clan may be behind bars for the murder of 57 civilians, but, back in their turf, their clan still holds governmental posts and their private army continues to operate. These armed goons of the Ampatuan warlords have committed scores of other acts of rape, torture and murder, which have somehow escaped investigation, broadcast through media and, even, retribution.
The Aquino regime is able to flaunt, at best, a semblance of its resolve to punish the culprits yet is unable to tear down the political power built by the Ampatuans as well as dismantle its private army. The fact is: Aquino III needs the Ampatuan war machine to neutralize the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the whole struggle of the Moro people in order to greatly satisfy US imperialist interests in the country.
These private armies operating as CAFGU or CAA and are in cahoots with the AFP and the PNP, are mainly used by the Ampatuan warlords (and in parallel, the private armies of Romarate in Surigao del Norte, of the Parojinogs in Misamis Occidental, of Jalosjos in Zamboanga del Sur, etc.) in carrying out their political manoeuvres and illicit activities, such as prohibited drugs, illegal numbers game and even the summary execution of their rivals.
It should be noted that it was the US-Arroyo regime that consolidated the Ampatuan dynasty for her election ticket in 2004 to deliver over a million votes.
The nine years of the Arroyo-Ampatuan clique in Mindanao launched the brutal assaults against the MILF and the entirety of the Moro revolutionary struggle through Oplan Bantay Laya 1 & 2. This resulted in the mass evacuations of millions of Moro and non-Moro peoples. These criminal acts have been tolerated concomitant to Arroyo’s own extra-judicial killings of more than a thousand activists, of more than a hundred media workers and the perpetration of other suchlike human rights violations in the country.
Extra-judicial executions continue unabated under Aquino III, and are seen to become more virulent especially now that his US imperialist master foisted the full implementation of its counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy in the country. And, given the conscious lackadaisical attitude of the Aquino government towards the Ampatuan case and other cases of political murders, the killings would not stop in the next six years of its term.
Having to witness that a year has passed and the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre still stand unpunished is great cause to resolutely struggle further for justice amid the tomfooleries of the Aquino government.
The Filipino people must ceaselessly press for the immediate dismantling of private armies and other such fascist instrumentalities wielded by the ruling clique to wreak fear, havoc and mass murder.
The NDFP-Mindanao calls on the people to unite and never lose sight of working towards the attainment of true justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre and of extra-judicial killings!
With the Aquino regime deliberately ignoring and floundering along in its handling of the Maguindanao massacre case and of the numerous cases of extra-judicial killings, the only recourse available to the Filipino people for justice to be attained is through revolutionary justice!
(Sgd.) Ka Oris
Spokesperson
NDFP – Mindanao
