INFOGRAPHIC: Maguindanao Massacre case, 5 years on

MANILA, Philippines – On Sunday, November 23, it will be 5 years since the worst case of election-related violence in Philippine history and one of the deadliest attacks on the media.

And 5 years on, none of the more than a hundred suspects has been convicted – 58 people killed, including 32 journalists; 300 witnesses, some of them mysteriously killed; and the case is still stuck at the first phase: bail petitions. 

The Ampatuan clan was believed to have plotted the massacre in Maguindanao, with the intention of derailing the gubernatorial candidacy of rival Esmael Mangudadatu for the 2010 May elections.

On that fateful day in 2009, a convoy carrying Mangudadatu’s relatives and supporters and the media were headed to the provincial capital to file his certificate of candidacy, challenging the Ampatuans. They were attacked, brutally killed, and buried using a government-owned backhoe. 

Despite the slow progress of the case – aggravated by infighting between government and private prosecutors – Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is still optimistic that there will be convictions by 2016, before the Aquino administration vows out. 

The infographic below sums up – in numbers – the status of the case.  

 – research by Angela Casauay; infographic by Nico Villarete/Rappler.com

Sources: National Union of Journalist of the Philippines, Rappler stories