Justice for massacre kin elusive under PNoy

MANILA - Families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre feel they have been betrayed by the Aquino administration after finding no justice 4 years after the killings. Harry Roque, lawyer of some of the victims, said that after four years, only 106 suspects in the massacre are in detention. Eighty-eight more are still at large. One hundred and forty-eight witnesses have been presented in the case so far out of an estimated 500 testimonies to be presented by both the prosecution and defense. Most of the witnesses presented, Roque noted, are for the bail petitions of some of the accused. "At the rate we are going I don't think it can be achieved the prosecution within the term of President Aquino. I would hope it is during my lifetime but I am sure you know of many sensational cases involving single victims taking as long as 15 years when you consider the appellate stage as well," he said in an interview on ANC's Headstart. "We seem to have accepted the fact that litigation takes long in the Philippines and we were hoping that the gruesome nature of this massacre would prompt authorities to reform the system. Clearly we need to punish the killers as soon as possible because we are already the most murderous country for journalists," he added. ANC HEADSTART, November 22, 2013