A Sydney-based group of Filipino journalists turned over funds which will be used to assist relatives of at least 30 media workers killed in the Maguindanao massacre.
Collected mainly from Filipino-Australian organizations, the A$1,330 (P54,623) donation was turned over to the Manila-based National Press Club of the Philippines.
Members of The Filipino Press Group of Sydney had launched an appeal for funds seven days after the massacre “to help relieve some of the pain” being experienced by victims’ families.
“I am sure they (relatives) will be elated by this since people from far away do care about them,” said Renato Perdon, columnist and editor of the Sydney-based Bayanihan News as he handed the money over to NPC.
Sydney-based newspaper columnist Neria Soliman said the group had earlier pledged to seek contributions from affiliate organizations of the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales, an alliance of Filipino-Australian organizations in the region.
The group said they took inspiration from the NPC chapter in the US, which is also collecting funds to be donated to the widow of Alejandro “Bong” Reblando, a Manila Bulletin reporter who was one of the killed journalists.
Reblando was a special guest of the US-based press club in its convention in 2001.
Local and international press groups have started fund collections for the benefit of the families of the journalists killed in the carnage, which claimed the lives of at least 57 people.
The reporters were part of a convoy whose members, and civilian passers-by, were killed en masse in the most gruesome election-related violence in the country’s history. – Joseph C. Lariosa, GMANews.TV
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