Debates rage in the Philippines on whether the media be allowed to cover live the trial of the accused in the Maguindanao massacre that jolted the nation and the world in 2009. Broadcast networks are balking at the coverage rules, particularly the requirement for their cameras to stay glued to the trial from start to end of each day's proceedings. Defenders of the decision, including officials at the presidential palace, believe that live coverage of the court hearings could discourage anomalous deals that may allow the accused, particularly the main defendants, to get light sentences or get off the hook completely. While debates are often healthy to be able to come up with a rational decision, these should not distract or obscure the trial of the defendants in heinous Mindanao massacre, publicly seen to have been perpetrated by a mighty clan supported by the previous administration of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. One lawmaker has said that it could take about 200 years for the families of the 57 confirmed victims of the massacre in Maguindanao province in November 2009 to get justice with finality, if ever they could get justice at all in the first place. Filipino lawyers are experts at delaying court proceedings, especially if their clients are on the losing end, and further delay that may be caused by the debates could aggravate the situation. It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied. In a land where the rich and powerful usually get away with murder, it is good that members of the once powerful Ampatuan clan accused of being behind the mass killings have been arrested and are being held without bail. But it would be better if those found guilty of the heinous crime could be given the appropriate punishment. The case cannot be handled in the usual snail-pace fashion of the Philippine criminal justice system and those involved in the proceedings, including the powerful media, should try to avoid making a circus out of this serious judicial affair which incidentally has also far-reaching political implications. The search for justice for the victims of the massacre almost three years ago has been agonizing and any more delays in the trial could be like rubbing salt into the wounds of the victims' families. Let us not allow the accused to win by default, which could happen if it were true that trial could take more than a hundred years to finish, and let justice lay unserved. Let justice reign. __
