Manila // Myrna Reblando looked at the photograph of her dead husband and said, half-jokingly: "I never liked that shirt."
Black humour is her way of handling the fact that her husband Bong will never again walk through the front door of their home in General Santos City, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, kiss her and ask how her day had gone.
A colour photograph of Bong stares out from the wall of her lawyer's conference room in Manila - a gaping hole in the side of his head and a bloodied blue Hawaiian shirt with boats and yellow sails. Out of view in the photograph are his shattered leg and hands where the fingertips had been cut off.
Bong was one of 57 people, including 32 journalists, massacred on November 23 in Maguindanao, a provincial backwater in Muslim Mindanao, where the Ampatuan clan has ruled for more than 10 years and had been close political allies of the president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, although she has distanced herself from the clan since the massacre.
So far only one man is standing trial for the massacre, Andal Ampatuan Jr, the mayor of Datu Unsay in Maguindanao and the son of the former provincial governor of the same name.
Mr Ampatuan is accused of ordering 100 of his men to massacre a convoy carrying supporters of a political rival and journalists who were travelling to the provincial capital to file registration papers for the May 10 election. In February his trial was suspended indefinitely over legal technicalities.
Arrest warrants have been issued against 196 people for their part in the massacre including most of the senior members of the Ampatuan clan, police and supporters but fewer then 90 have been detained.
The new acting secretary of justice, Alberto Agra, who was once a leading human rights lawyer, caused an uproar on April 16 when he dropped murder charges against two prominent members of the Ampatuan clan - Zaldy Ampatuan, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and his cousin Akmad Ampatuan, the former acting vice governor of Maguindanao.
The two men were alleged to have been among the key planners of the massacre that drew condemnation not only within the Philippines but internationally.
Amnesty International, in a statement on April 21, said dropping the charges just before the election "smacks of placing politics before justice and human rights".
Mrs Reblando said she does not believe justice will come in the dying days of the Arroyo administration. "But justice will come," she said.
Married for 35 years and with seven children, she and relatives of other victims have formed a group called Justice Now! to ensure the massacre does not fade from people's minds, as is often the case in the Philippines. The sheer scale of the attack and its brutality shocked a nation that over the years has become increasingly desensitised to violence.
"What happened in Maguindanao was brutal and those involved must be punished," Mrs Reblando said. Bong, who was the Manila Bulletin's correspondent in General Santos, and his colleagues "were just doing their job".
"No one in that convoy deserved to die," she said.
Mrs Reblando travelled to Manila on Thursday with another widow, Editha Tiamzon, to file a petition to have Mr Agra overturn his controversial decision. So far, despite pressure from many fronts, including the president, he has not moved on the issue.
The last time Mrs Reblando saw her husband alive was on the morning of November 22 when he drove off to Maguindanao to meet up with his colleagues in the convoy.
"I really didn't want him to go," she said. "Maguindanao was always a dangerous place but Bong said it would be OK as there were many women in the convoy."
He travelled in the morning as ambushes tend to happen in late afternoon, she said.
"Just after lunch I got a call from my daughter saying Bong has been taken hostage. My immediate thought was how can I get money together to pay the ransom. An hour or two later the calls came in from all over - Manila, Davao City - saying that something terrible had happened to the convoy.
"The news of the massacre came out in bits and pieces at first, then it was a flood. I was numb. I could not believe it at first," she said.
The presidential front-runner, the senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, is the only candidate to have taken an interest in the case and has visited many people who lost loved ones, including Mrs Reblando.
"I met him recently and he was incredibly sincere when he spoke to me and some of the other women. And he promised that if he wins the presidency the case will be given immediate priority because of its heinous nature," she said.
"Noynoy promised that justice would not be allowed to drag on for years and that it would be resolved within a year."
@Email:foreign.desk@thenational.ae
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
RESULTS
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
ABU%20DHABI%20CARD
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The Saga Continues
Wu-Tang Clan
(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)
