VICE President Jejomar Binay, in a statement marking the 2009 carnage, asked all concerned Filipinos to “lend their voice in demanding justice for the victims of the Ampatuan Massacre.”

“We must send the message that we, Filipinos, have had enough of the culture of impunity that has beset our country for so long,” Binay said. “We must continue to uphold and respect the freedom of the press, and ensure that the practice of journalism remains free from harassment and acts of violence.”

Binay also asserted that Filipinos “must work to preserve the integrity of our government institutions, to promote accountability, and end the abuse of political power.”

“If we are to successfully reform our country, then we must bring to justice the perpetrators of this massacre,” Binay said, adding, “I pray that we never waver in this fight.”

At the same time, Binay’s PDP-Laban party-mate, Sen. Aquilino Martin Pimentel III, pressed for the speedy resolution of the murder charges against the masterminds in the Ampatuan Massacre two years ago.

In a separate statement, Pimentel pledged support for the initiative of human-rights advocates to declare November 23 as the International Day to End Impunity that also marks the second year of the quest for justice of the victims of the massacre.

He also endorsed the reported plan of the lawyer for the victims of the massacre to ask the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City to allow the resolution of individual cases against some of the suspects so that the murder charges against them could be resolved ahead of the others.

This way, Pimentel explained, “the justice that the victims of the massacre have been denied in the past two years could start to be realized, beginning with the conviction of the alleged masterminds of the Ampatuan Massacre.”

Lawyer Harry Roque, counsel for the victims, is set to file a motion to allow the resolution of individual cases against some of the suspects that could be resolved ahead of the others so that the victims do not have to wait for the resolution of all of the cases regarding the massacre before justice can be served to them.

With the 58 victims and almost 200 suspects in the massacre, the litigation for all the murder cases involved in the Ampatuan Massacre case could take thousands of years, Roque said, citing the World Bank study that the average life span of a criminal case in the Philippines is five years.

“It would be absurd if we would have to wait for thousands of years,” Pimentel pointed out. “That would already amount to impunity. Putting priority on the conviction of the masterminds in the Maguindanao massacre case would therefore be the most logical way by which the victims could be served justice in our lifetime.”