Ampatuan Wedding Furlough: Just Another Social Event?

Screengrab from Rappler.

SHAME ON media organizations that seem to have forgotten the wholesale murder of their own brothers and sisters in the journalism profession and failed to report how a politician accused of a massacre have obtained a special privilege.

Much of the media reported the furlough from detention of Zaldy Ampatuan, who was allowed to attend the wedding of his daughter in Pasay City last August 21. Ampatuan is a principal accused in the November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 men and women including 32 journalists and media workers.

Media treated the news as a social event, with 60 prominent political personalities in attendance in the wedding, some of whom were among the wedding sponsors.  These reports did not recall the cases of other requests for furloughs that were either granted or denied, which demonstrate not only the inconsistencies of the courts, but also the seemingly privileged status of a selected few accused of crime.

TV Patrol did not run a report on the Ampatuan wedding  or on the issues of furlough among the primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, GMA-7’s 24 Oras, TV5’s Aksyon and CNN Philippines’ News Night), the leading broadsheets (Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin), and selected websites that CMFR monitored from August 21-26.

News Night and 24 Oras reports showed a video clip posted by Rep. Ruby Shahali (Tawi-Tawi) on her Facebook account which showed Ampatuan in the traditional dance of the father with the bride.

Judge Solis-Reyes had justified her approval of Ampatuan’s furlough request by saying that “despite being a detention prisoner having certain restrictions, [Ampatuan] may be allowed to attend his eldest daughter’s wedding, which, in our culture, is a significant milestone to be cherished and remembered.”

CMFR Cheers online news site Rappler for its report “PH courts inconsistent in letting detainees attend family events” on August 22,  the Philippine Daily Inquirer for its August 25 editorial “Shocking wedding” and the Philippine Star for its August 26 “Privileged jailbirds” editorial.

Only Rappler, the Inquirer and the Star among the media organizations monitored by CMFR noted the inconsistencies and the seeming partiality of Philippine courts in granting furloughs to well-connected detainees.

The Inquirer’s “Shocking wedding” called attention to the denial of a plea made by Senator Leila de Lima to attend her son’s graduation. She is still awaiting trial for that are “far less serious.”

The Star’s “Privileged Jailbirds” noted that the grant of the furlough “reinforces perceptions” that there is one justice for the poor and another “for the likes of Zaldy Ampatuan.”

Rappler recalled that a few months ago, Branch 205 of the Muntinlupa City RTC had rejected detained Senator De Lima’s request despite that event’s being an equally “significant milestone” in Philippine culture. “The resolution of Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpuz (said) that De Lima’s presence at the graduation rites would “disrupt the solemnity” of the occasion for other graduates and their parents,” the Rappler  report noted.

Rappler listed other instances in which furloughs had been granted by the courts to high-profile, well-connected detainees, including holiday breaks given to former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in December 2014. She was then under hospital detention and was facing plunder charges.

Former Senator Jinggoy Estrada was allowed to attend his son’s graduation in March 2015 and former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. was able to visit his ailing father and to spend Christmas last year at home. The two are facing plunder and graft charges, with Estrada allowed to post bail in September 2017.