"Still, never forget."

"Still, never forget."

(A message for the 10th year of the Maguindanao Massacre)

At first, this page is in one with the Filipino people and the media community in remembering this horrible atrocity in this 10th year of the Maguindanao Massacre. This politically-motivated massacre hath killed 53 people, including 32 journalists, as well as lawyers, religious, and commoners, and is considered the worst case of political and media violence in the country and in the world.

This massacre is widely known to be perpetrated by the Ampatuan clan, whose once-decades old feudo-warlord rule has brought atrocity to its subjects not just in Maguindanao but also in the ARMM region. It is also brought to the fore the risks journalists constantly face in their duties in an evironment where threats to their safety and well-breing a perennial challenge. 

But come to think of this, for years of remembering, none of the perpetrators have met justice, that some of the witnesses have either disappeared, killed, or forced to recant their testimonies. At one time one of the principle suspects of the massacre had been allowed by the courts to leave detention and attend his daughter's wedding-an undisguised flouting of law and power. 

And also to think that regardless of not in power, little has changed. Today that under Duterte's rule, change hath been reduced to a rhetoric regardless of its various "achievements". And as in the past, the continuity of the rotten order dominated by despotic landlords and warlords alike continue to employ armed goons and paid hacks of the order to suppress the masses and to perpetuate their economic and political interests.

That as in the past, the order's attacks against media have been vile. With Duterte openly encouraged violence against media entities for seeking truth from facts, he has abused the law to harangue editors and publishers who have refused to support the order's lies. It is the same order whose resources been used to spread lies, troll social media, and attack independent websites-with writers (including those in campus media) been "red tagged", intimidated, and harassed by the order's thugs and attack dogs- that in 2016, there hath been at least 85 attacks against journalists with 13 murdered.

Today the Filipino people mark this 10th year anniversary of this atrocity, and along with an echoing demand for justice, the people will never forget this murderous act nor yield in this ever-continuing attack on those who seek truth from facts, and to those who demand civil and political rights.