Journos from various media groups, students and human rights advocates staged a candle lighting ceremony in a call to end impunity, while observing the 5th year commemoration of the Ampatuan Massacre.
Entitled “Million Candles Campaign”, the said participants gathered at the foot of the EDSA Shrine last November 23, 2014, 6 p.m., to show solidarity and unity, signifying an urgent call for justice for the 58 victims of the Ampatuan bloodbath. Spearheaded by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), the event was attended by Journalists coming from local media groups such as the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Student journalists were present as well, as the Colleger Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) graced the event with their outcry for immediate action through their placards. Various foreign journalists, hailing from Asian and western countries, have also joined the commemoration and have lit their candles during the candle lighting ceremony. According to Ms. Kathyrn Roja G. Raymundo, a senior staff writer of CMFR, the commemoration is under their Press Freedom Protection Program, that records the killings of journalists and other attacks and threats against press freedom as well. To further intensify the campaign, CMFR has also met with journalism student representatives four days before the event. Students from University of the Philippines- Dilliman, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and the Bulacan State University were called for a meeting, to urge the said universities to take part of the commemoration by tweeting their messages of sympathy on the November 23, making the different social media sites, especially Twitter, to be an effective tool of spreading awareness about the Ampatuan trial. The Ampatuan Massacre was coined as “the single deadliest attack on journalists in history”, as 58 people, including 32 media workers and journalists, were brutally slaughtered while travelling in a political convoy in Maguindanao. Since November 23, 2009, the day the massacre happened, out of 193 suspects, no one has been convicted.
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sa pangaraw-araw na kasaysayan. Bea Velasco 21 Archives
November 2014
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