Their husbands were close friends but their wives did not know one another. The Ampatuan massacre changed that. When they finally met, Myrna Reblando, Glenna Legarta and Mary Jean Merisco would refer to each other as 17, 20 and 19 – the numbers assigned by the police to the bodies of their husbands found near each other at the scene of the crime. A fourth widow, Norma Parcon, said her husband's body was among those buried and recovered by a backhoe. None of the widows was allowed to walk up to the hill where 57 people, including 30 journalists, were gunned down and mutilated on Nov. 23. It was only days later, after police pictures were leaked to the internet, that the women saw their husbands' bodies. Parcon did not see her husband in the photos but she would identify him later through copies of the raw police video reproduced by DVD traders. “When the backhoe lifted a body, a green ID holder fell—and I knew it was him,” she said. In a live radio interview on the afternoon of Nov. 23, Myrna was told that her husband, Manila Bulletin reporter Alejandro (Bong) Reblado was dead. The Bombo Radyo interviewer told her that cadavers have been found and the police have arrived on the scene. She refused to believe it. Receiving the news, she thought at first that his husband was being held hostage for ransom by a Moro group. She started creating a mental inventory of possessions she could sell in order to raise the money and quickly secure his release. Later, it crossed her mind that it could be an election-related confrontation between the Ampatuans and Mangudadatus but she felt confident that reporters like Bong would be spared from harm. Myrna felt confident that her husband would not be harmed by an Ampatuan as she believed Bong enjoyed the confidence of the Ampatuan patriarch, Andal Sr. She remembers that on one occasion, Bong and one of their seven children even spent a night in one of the Ampatuan mansions during a long trip. Myrna and her daughter kept calling Bong's cell phone but he couldn't be reached. Still, she said, “I never gave up hope that he escaped and was still alive.” The following day, Myrna received confirmation, both from independent and official sources, that her husband was dead. The day that Myrna recovered Bong's body was their 25th wedding anniversary. Noemi Parcon's husband, Pronterra Balita publisher Joel Parcon, 50, did not tell her that he was going to cover a story. It was the norm in the Parcon household that Joel would disappear for days, returning home for a few days just to write and lay out the pages of the weekly publication which he would then take to General Santos City for printing. Married to Joel for 29 years, Noemi, 46, had long ago accepted that her husband kept odd hours. At about 9 A.M. on Nov. 23, a neighbor who is a policeman asked one of her children if Joel had joined the Ampatuan coverage. There was no doubt in Noemi's mind that he was there. “He would always be where the Mangudadatus went,” she said. At 9:30 A.M., which was about the time that the Mangudadatu convoy was stopped in Ampatuan town, Noemi's daughter Hazel Rosette dialed her father's cell phone. Joel did not answer but he accepted the call, allowing her to hear a commotion of sorts as well as several voices. She could hear the sounds until she ran out of load. She reloaded her phone but when she called up again, the phone just kept on ringing. Even when rumors of the hostage-taking had reached them, Noemi was unperturbed. Like the other widows, she was certain that media men like Joel were not going to be hurt. Later , Noemi remembered hearing radio reports emphatically declaring, “'All of those who were in the convoy are dead.” A confirmation that Joel was dead came when she called up her husband's cell phone. Someone answered, whispered in reply to her query, “He's dead, he's dead.” To date, she does not know the identity of the person who answered; nor has she recovered Joel's cell phone. Mary Jean Merisco and Glenna Legarta knew their husbands were best buddies – apparently, up to the end. Rey Merisco, 34, of Periodico Ini and Bienvenido “Jun” Legarte, 36, of Pronterra Balita, were found beside each other, sprawled on the ground beside a vehicle. They were among the 22 bodies that the fleeing killers failed to bury. Police numbered their bodies as 19 and 20. “Have you heard about it?” It was Glenna, 36, who called up Mary Jean on Nov. 23 regarding the reported abduction of about 40 media members. At 9:32 A.M., Glenna dialed Jun's cell phone. It rang and then abruptly she heard the message that it was out of coverage. She kept calling but could not reach him. Between 4 P.M. and 5 P.M., she heard from the radio the names of those who were confirmed dead. To this date, she recites the order in which the names were read: Jun was the fifth. The shots fired at Jun were so powerful that his left arm was severed from his shoulder and the left side of his pelvis bore a huge, gaping hole. Glenna spared her three children (11, 8 and 5 years old) from the sight of their murdered father. Jun had worked for various Koronadal-based publications in the past 11 years and was at one time the publisher of Rapido News. The day before the killings, Glenna had sent a text message to her husband, asking him to consider changing jobs as this one kept him out late at night and exposed him to danger. Jun replied by text, “Yes, ma, after this.” Mary Jean admits that although she supplements Jun's income as a pre-school clerk, they barely made enough to provide for their 8-year-old daughter. But Rey was chasing a life-long dream that began when he was a high school campus journalist – to be a publisher. He achieved that with Tingog Mindanaw, a weekly, which was on its second issue when he died.
