{"id":240426,"date":"2019-12-19T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T03:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=240426"},"modified":"2019-12-19T22:52:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T03:52:43","slug":"maguindanao-massacre-verdict-shows-working-ph-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/19\/maguindanao-massacre-verdict-shows-working-ph-justice-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Maguindanao massacre verdict shows working PH justice system"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_220516\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220516\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/usec-severo-catura-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-220516\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/usec-severo-catura-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/usec-severo-catura-1.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/usec-severo-catura-1-768x495.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220516\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS) Executive Director, Undersecretary Severo Catura. (Photo: PCOO OSec Media via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; The guilty verdict against key suspects in the Maguindanao massacre case handed down on Thursday showed that the justice system in the Philippines is working, an official of the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS) said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe judicial process may have taken quite some time, but justice has triumphed, with our government, under the Duterte administration, remaining true to its obligation to fulfill the human rights of those concerned,\u201d Undersecretary Severo Catura, PHRCS executive director, said in a statement sent to the Philippine News Agency (PNA).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mechanisms have effectively worked in the victims\u2019 favor, and this is what human rights is all about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Catura said the Maguindanao massacre case has defined the human rights situation in the Philippines and even allowed detractors to accuse the government as a purveyor of impunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is farthest from the truth. The dictum that every person who is charged with a crime is deemed innocent until proven guilty remains an anchor of the Philippine justice system. And we\u2019re talking of more than a hundred people indicted in this gruesome incident,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dWhat seems to be disregarded is the fact that the government has upheld everyone\u2019s right to a fair and public hearing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Catura said the conviction of 43 personalities can be considered \u201ca milestone in human rights history in the Philippines\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome 28, including members of the powerful Ampatuan family, were declared guilty beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced to life imprisonment. On the other hand, 15 were sentenced to six to 10 years and eight months in prison as accessories to the crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot since the post-world war Nuremberg trials of 1945-49, which saw the conviction of 18 war criminals, has the world seen this large number of persons convicted by a single court. Even the much-vaunted International Criminal Court, in all its 17 years in existence and after having spent more than a billion dollars, has only convicted four personalities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Catura also lauded Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes who took on the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0&#8212; The guilty verdict against key suspects in the Maguindanao massacre case handed down on Thursday showed that the justice &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":220516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240430,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240426\/revisions\/240430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}