MANILA, Oct. 23 – In a massive show of solidarity, Philippine media groups gathered here Sunday to start a month-long commemoration of the second anniversary of the gruesome Maguindanao massacre and called anew for swift justice to the 57 murdered victims, including 32 journalists.

The Maguindanao massacre took place in Maguindanao province in southern Philippines some 850 kilometers south of Manila on that fateful day of Nov. 23, 2009.

The participating media networks are the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the Philippine Press Institute, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).

Media organizations around the globe have condemned the massacre and continued to watch the outcome of the trial.

In today’s activities, media groups called the government for the early resolution of the heinous political crime, the deadliest in the country and perhaps in the whole world in terms of the number of journalists murdered in one incident.

The media groups made their opening salvo with a program they dubbed as “Countdown to End Impunity” in suburban Quezon City.

A documentary film entitled “Roadshow to End Impunity” will be shown to various places around the country, particularly in schools from Nov. 15 to 21.

On Nov. 15, media men will hold a dialogue with concerned government agencies to ask them to commit to their anti-impunity campaigns.

It may be recalled that on Nov. 23, 2009, a convoy of vehicles with 57 people on board were ambushed by about 200 gunmen, some of them members of militia unit in Maguindanao.

The powerful Ampatuan family in Maguindanao province has been tagged as the alleged mastermind in the country’s worst political massacre.

The victims were hastily buried in shallow graves using a government-owned backhoe.

[Photo by Magic Liwanag.]