MANILA, Philippines - More than a hundred coffins were
carried from suburban Quezon City to Manila by rights, media and lawyer
groups in protest over delayed trials in the 2009 election-related
massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists.
The coffins, made of paper
mache, represented other victims of political killings in the
Philippines since the start of President Benigno Aquino’s term in 2010.
The 58 people were massacred and buried in shallow mass graves by relatives and members of private armies of Andal Ampatuan Sr, former governor of Maguindanao, in his hometown in the south on November 23, 2009, rights lawyer Harry Roque said.
The 58 people were massacred and buried in shallow mass graves by relatives and members of private armies of Andal Ampatuan Sr, former governor of Maguindanao, in his hometown in the south on November 23, 2009, rights lawyer Harry Roque said.
Members of the National Union
of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) also led protesters in the
lighting of 58 candles at the commemorative marker for the victims of
the Maguindanao massacre, which was erected at Manila’s National Press
Club, in time for the event’s third year.
Protesters went to Mendiola,
near Malacanang, the presidential palace, where they burned a towering
11-foot effigy named ‘Impunity Master’.
“The effigy symbolises Filipinos’ dream to put an end to the culture of impunity that is exacerbated by the powerful and the mighty,” said Crisanto de Leon, head of Artists Collective, a group of visual artists that was behind the effigy’s creation.
“The effigy symbolises Filipinos’ dream to put an end to the culture of impunity that is exacerbated by the powerful and the mighty,” said Crisanto de Leon, head of Artists Collective, a group of visual artists that was behind the effigy’s creation.
Source: Herald...More...
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