GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 December) – Government psychosocial experts will conduct a series of trauma counseling sessions in Koronadal City Tuesday for the families of the 57 victims of the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

Jerome Barangco, Office of Civil Defense-Region 12 assistant regional director, said a team of psychologists and psychiatrists from the Department of Health (DOH) and the University of the Philippines in Manila will mainly offer grief and trauma healing sessions to help relieve the trauma suffered by the victims’ families, especially the children.

Dubbed interagency psychosocial debriefing, he said the free counseling sessions will be held the entire day on Tuesday at the Agua Frio Resort in Koronadal City.

Barangco said they have sent out invitations to the immediate families of the massacre victims, especially those from Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao, to take part in the counseling sessions.

He said the psychosocial counseling sessions, which will be supervised by the DOH, will also involve locally trained counselors from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other local agencies.

A group of armed men allegedly led by Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. flagged down last November 23 at least eight vehicles along the national highway in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao and later killed all its 57 passengers, including 31 journalists.

Most of the victims, some of whom were found buried in shallow graves at an outskirt village in Ampatuan town, were part of a six-vehicle convoy carrying journalists and members of the Mangudadatu family who were then on their way to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office in Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.

The Department of Justice already filed multiple murder charges against the mayor and has recommended the inclusion in the charge sheet of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Sr., Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and several other members of the influential political clan. 

Norhata Benito, social welfare officer of the DSWD Region 12’s operations division, said the agency earlier recommended the conduct of psychosocial counseling sessions to the families of the massacre victims after noting the trauma suffered by some of them.

“Most of them were really traumatized and some confided to our staff members during a meeting with them that they still couldn’t accept what had happened and they don’t know what to do next,” she said.

Benito, who was among those who facilitated the releases of the DSWD’s emergency assistance, said they immediately asked the DOH to conduct grief and trauma counseling sessions for the victims’ families.

“I think that’s their number one need. The financial assistance may not matter much if they remain traumatized because of the incident,” she added. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)

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