HRW's Conde said acquittal would signal to warlords “that it’s business as usual, that they can continue using violence, intimidation and corruption to rule their communities.”
A guilty verdict “will be a strong signal to human rights abusers that they can’t always get away with murder,” Carlos Conde, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Agence France-Presse .
The brazen attack was carried out in broad daylight on a convoy carrying the wife of Maguindanao gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangudadatu, relatives, lawyers and the journalists, who were stopped at a police-manned checkpoint, hauled to a rise above the road, and killed in a hail of gunfire.The murders exposed how then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had tolerated the Ampatuans’ heavily armed militia as a buffer against Moro rebels who were fighting for an Islamic state in Mindanao.
This case is no exception, and victims’ families have long worried the Ampatuans, who continue to wield political power and influence, could avoid convictions. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, which holds proceedings at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, will promulgate her decision on Thursday morning, more than a decade after the mass murders.“Regardless of under whose administration, justice should always prevail,” said President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson, Salvador Panelo.
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