‘Fiasco’ at UNESCO: Travesty of justice for Ampatuan massacre victims

(Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version due to space constraint. It first appeared at the Phil. News Agency dispatch last December 2, 2020)

ACCORDING to a recent Reuter’s headline, “too much politics leaves UNESCO fighting for life.” Indeed, there is much to be desired about the recent actions of the once esteemed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO).

UNESCO is a by-product of the devastation caused by the Second World War, conceived in 1945 to promote world peace and security through international cooperation in education, the sciences, and culture.

Today, the international body is run by dilettantes preoccupied with too much politicking and pettifogging over frivolous matters, vexing even the mighty United States of America.

In 1984, the US withdrew from UNESCO, accusing it of “extraneously politicizing virtually every subject it deals with” and “exhibiting hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society” and a “free press.”

The US rejoined in 2003, only to withdraw again on December 31, 2018. Israel followed suit on January 1, 2019, describing the organization as “corrupted and manipulated”.

Reports said one insider has revealed that UNESCO was once all about solidarity and creating a climate to foster peace between states. Now, countries use their dues to influence UNESCO’s agenda.

Upon leaving UNESCO, the Prime Minister of Israel even remarked that “We hope that the organization will change its ways but we are not pinning hopes on this.”

What happened to UNESCO?  Is it a lost cause?  Many nations now question the point of the existence of the international body.

Even our beloved nation has not been spared by too much politics in UNESCO. A case in point is the Ampatuan Massacre that happened more than a decade ago on November 23, 2009.

In Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information Moez Chakchouk’s official letter dated 31 July 2020 to Philippines Ambassador Theresa Lazaro (Ref.: CI/FEJ/2020/379), he confirmed that UNESCO will be officially classifying the Maguindanao Massacre as “resolved”.

As stated in Mr. Chakchouk’s correspondence:

“As regards your request concerning the 30 cases of killings of journalists related to the “Maguindanao Massacre”, I am pleased to confirm that we will classify these as resolved, both in the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists and in the 2020 Director-General Report on the Safety of Journalists”.

Flip-flop

In a complete turnaround from the earlier pronouncement of UNESCO, here came Deputy Director-General Xing Qu, who decided to maintain the classification of the massacre case as still “on-going/unresolved”, apparently upon the prodding of some groups that misrepresented themselves for the victims.

In his letter dated September 24, 2020.  Mr. Qu said:

“UNESCO learned in early September 2020 that, in this particular case, appeals have been launched. Based on this new information, the legal cases concerned will, therefore, be maintained as “on-going/unresolved” in the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists, as well as in the upcoming “Director General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity” until such a moment when final verdict is reached by the Philippine Judicial System”.

Such obvious flip-flopping did not go unnoticed.

Very recently, the real families and colleagues of the victims expressed shock over the sudden turnaround and urged UNESCO to remain true to its word on its earlier commitment to classifying the case as resolved.

During the 11th anniversary of the incident, the Manila Bulletin reported that Elliver Cablitas, husband of reporter Maritess Cablitas who was killed in the massacre,  and president of Heirs of 11/23 Heroes, said their group was wary of the petition filed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) that asked UNESCO to declare the Maguindanao massacre case as unresolved despite the conviction of masterminds Andal Ampatuan Jr. and his brother Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as it might jeopardize the resolution of the case based on the court decision.

Cablitas added that NUJP’s petition might jeopardize the victims’ claims for civil damages which the court ordered the convicted accused to pay for each family, ranging from P350,000 to P2.5 million.

The families and colleagues of the victims pointed out that UNESCO failed to consider their stance as they “were not consulted and unaware about the petition” submitted by NUJP to UNESCO.

Even the National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), the country’s largest organization of active journalists, was “utterly dismayed” over UNESCO’s flip-flopping.

In its “Manifesto” addressed to the UN body, the NPC explained that UNESCO’s earlier pronouncement of promising to categorize the case as “resolved” “was met with wide acclaim and acceptance not only by the legitimate Philippine media organizations such as the NPC and all its affiliates but more so, by the victims’ families.”

The NPC expressed grave concern that UNESCO is allowing itself to be used unwittingly by a handful of misguided groups in the country to promote their own selfish interests instead of that of the victims’ families.

According to the NPC, “NUJP’s petition is aimed at further aggravating the injustice they have suffered as it actually favors the Ampatuans who can now use it as further basis NOT to pay the compensations obligated to them by the court.”

The NPC said that “all of us deemed it necessary to come out now in order to stop the vicious machination” by some organizations “in exploiting the issue of human rights violations in the Philippines in general and, the Ampatuan Massacre in particular, for their political, ideological and financial gains.”

The NPC further claimed that the NUJP refused to provide any accounting for all donations it received, solicited, and collected on behalf of the victims’ families.

Unlike the NUJP, the NPC pointed out that the official audit of all funds relating to the Club’s assistance to the victims, together with all supporting documents, is publicly available.

It is important to stress that UNESCO’s initial commitment to classifying the Maguindanao Massacre as already resolved is grounded upon the guilty verdict handed down in the case by a Philippine court in 2019.

This was a monumental victory not only for the victims but for the entire Philippine nation. While lawyers from both sides assumed the case will take “a hundred years” to finish owing to the vast number of victims and suspects, the guilty verdict was finally handed down in 2019 due to the proactive support given by the government.

CPJ’s bias

Unfortunately, it seems that even the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) does not share the sentiments of the families and colleagues of the victims of the massacre.

In a faulty “analysis” written by Shawn W. Crispin, Senior Southeast Asia Representative, the CPJ echoed the view of the NUJP who led the petition at UNESCO to maintain the unresolved status of the massacre.

Unwittingly acting as NUJP’s mouthpiece without actually knowing all the facts on the ground, the CPJ said that the government through PTFoMS’ chief Egco was “too quick” to echo UNESCO’s earlier pronouncement.

According to Crispin, “Far from it: All of the convicted Ampatuan clan members, including the crime’s reputed masterminds Andal Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy Ampatuan, have appealed their convictions.

Contrary to Crispin’s bare claims, the Philippines’ justice system is not much different from any other system existing in the democratic world.

While it is true that the justice system in the Philippines remains slow due, in part, to the huge disparity between the number of judges vis-a-vis the number of cases pending in court, it is far less “labyrinthine” than the systems used in other countries such as in the United States where CPJ is based and which has a jury system in place.

The CPJ should do more investigation than making false analyses without any basis.

The present government should not be held hostage by the ghosts of past mistakes as it has proven time and again of its unwavering commitment to protecting the life, liberty, and security of journalists.

Let us not let the noises caused by a few misguided individuals with ulterior motives continue to besmirch the reputation of a nation of more than a hundred million freedom-loving Filipinos.

In the broader interest of justice, it is high time for UNESCO to categorically classify the Maguindanao Massacre as finally and officially “resolved”.

(Atty. Solis comes from a family of journalists. He is presently the chief-of-staff of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security. He also teaches at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines College of Law.)