Ampatuan Massacre

I may have not mentioned this to anyone but there was once a time when I wanted to be a serious journalists. There also came a time when I had a real shot at it. This was way back in my college days when I was OJT-ing under Radyo Veritas. Radio has always been my first love. I loved the work. I got to hang around famous people, watch them, watch our field reporters interview them. It was awesome. It's actually one of the few enriching  moments of my life.

So there, on the last days of my OJT, I wanted them to hire me. Except that I had zero skills in typing back then and this is their first requirement. Everyone was kind enough to point that out to me, hahahaha! I promised the then editor-in-chief, Sir Danny that I will be back someday and I will be so good at typing it'll make their head spin. He said if I mastered the keyboard, there's a real chance that they will hire me.

Sir Melo, the station manager who obviously heard of my squashed attempt at getting hired, told me in confidence that if I wanted to work for them, I had to be ready. Journalists are being killed, more so under the Arroyo administration.

"Kung handa ka na mamatay sa ngalan ng trabaho then you can be a journalist" he said to me.

Of course, I was speechless.

I didn't take heed until a couple of years ago when Sir Danny told me one of their field reporters was shot dead right in front of their office. Needless to say I never came back.

I never became the big shot journalist that I dreamed of being. But that doesn't mean I don't recognize the importance of their work. I know what's at stake. It's an admirable job that was never meant for me.

Of course, this article is not about my own cowardice though it might seem like it is. It's about how 57 plus people were murdered in cold blood in Maguindanao. 27 of them are journalists while most are women, (one is even pregnant) who got raped and shot on the face and genitals. This issue is very close to my heart and I hope the perpetrators would burn in the seventh circle of hell.

The sadder thing is that there is an obvious cover-up, the suspects were close allies of President Arroyo. I believe that full justice will never be achieved. Nor will it ever make up for what the victims' families have lost.

Here's me taking a moment.