Better late than never

“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

By Alex P. Vidal

THE guilty verdict came 10 years after the grisly massacre happened; when some people have forgotten how the 58 non-combatant civilians, including 32 media workers, were killed and why they were murdered like animals in Maguindanao.

It would have been sweeter, to say the least, if the historic reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment verdict came at least eight years earlier, when the alleged massacre “godfather” Ampatuan, Sr., Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s former mahjong partner, was still alive.

But nonetheless the long wait is over and, while others are saying that “justice delayed is justice denied,” some are also declaring that “it’s better late then never.”

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Remembering our Capitol press corps days in the early 90’s, the gory massacre of our colleagues on November 23, 2009 had terrible effects on me personally as a media worker.

The scenario was very familiar: they were on a van escorting the wife of a gubernatorial candidate and her entourage when waylaid by more than 100 armed men led by the powerful political clan Ampatuan in a secluded area.

When members of the entourage were wiped out by a hail of bullets, our colleagues in Mindanao were also shot execution style one after another.

We also used to go out-of-town in a van or as a group in Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, Antique, Guimaras, among other provinces in Western Visayas and Negros to cover important events and conflicts involving feuding political clans, groups and the encounters between the military and the insurgency.

We faced the same danger our murdered colleagues had gone through before they were killed violently, but were just lucky we didn’t end up as collateral victims or intended targets of violence on several occasions.

We were just fortunate our politicians and military officials did not have the kind of mentality of the dreaded Ampatuans. 

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Before checking the updates on the Ampatuan massacre verdict, I was monitoring since morning the intense and fiery debates between the Democrats and Republicans in the US House of Representatives during the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The House finally voted to impeach President Trump on both articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The votes came after weeks of testimony related to the President’s dealings with Ukraine and hours of fiery debate over the process.

Some of the highlights were: dozens of congresspeople uttered tens of thousands of words during the marathon debate; President Trump a rambling six-page letter December 17 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling Congress’ impeachment inquiry a partisan “crusade,” an “unprecedented and constitutional abuse of power” and a “spiteful” “election-nullification scheme”; the House Judiciary Committee released its full 658-page report just after midnight Sunday, in which the majority calls President Trump the “Framers’ worst nightmare.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)