Maguindanao massacre: Pres’l task force blames media groups, pandemic for delayed compensation for victims’ kin

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 23) — Fourteen years after the Maguindanao massacre, families of the victims have lamented still not receiving compensation. A government official claimed some media groups could be blamed for the setbacks.

Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) executive director Paul Gutierrez told the families that the delays have to do with some media organizations arguing against the 2009 case previously being deemed resolved.

“Ang nangyari nga kasi dito, bigla ngang merong mga media group na umepal, sumulat sa korte…Nakarating pa sa United Nations na hindi pa tapos ang kaso,” said Gutierrez, a former journalist, during a forum in Maguindanao on Thursday.

“So, everything related dito po sa inyong compensation, kasama na po ‘yung potential na dapat po makumpisa ng gobyerno, natigil,” he added.

[Translation: What happened was there were some attention-grabbing media groups, who wrote to the court, saying the case is not yet closed. It even reached the United Nations. So, everything related to your compensation, including the potential assets that the government could confiscate from the perpetrators, have been halted.]

In 2020, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) considered the Maguindanao massacre as resolved. However, it later reclassified the case as “ongoing” following appeals not only from organizations but also from the victims’ kin.

​National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chairperson Jonathan De Santos said Gutierrez’s claim has no basis since the UNESCO classification is separate from the court process.

“That claim doesn't make sense,” De Santos told CNN Philippines in a message. “What he was referring to was the UNESCO listing. That has nothing to do with compensation or final conviction.”​​​​​​

Fifty-eight people — including 32 journalists and family members of then political candidate Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu — were shot dead in broad daylight in Ampatuan town on Nov. 23, 2009. The incident has become the world’s single deadliest attack on media workers and the worst election-related violence in the country.

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