“It seemed unbelievable that such a thing would happen when great democratic freedoms had been enjoyed by Filipinos for decades after the Marcos dictatorship.

Ten years later, the Ampatuan massacre issue may finally be laid to rest.

It was a long and dark episode in our history. The images of bodies emerging from a makeshift burial ground — the bloodied, desecrated bodies of journalists covering the elections in Maguindanao — still fill our minds with unimagined horror.

When the verdict comes out on 19 December, it will no doubt feel anticlimactic.

People have waited for a long time for justice to be served. But the question still remains — will it really be justice that will be served?

Certainly, not everyone will be happy, and who knows how many will rejoice.

It will be Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes who will hand down the judgment after a decade of trial.

Will she become another Harriet Demetriou, who was reportedly offered P30 million before she sentenced the former mayor Antonio Sanchez to life imprisonment?

“Let the promulgation of judgment in the above-entitled cases be set on 19 December at 9 in the morning to be held at Quezon City Jail Annex, Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City,” she said in an order dated 29 November.

People are on tenterhooks expecting some satisfaction from this case that has dragged on for a decade.

After all, the last 10 years had heard the testimonies of over hundreds of witnesses, piling up voluminous case records including transcripts and prosecution evidence.

The principal accused, Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy Ampatuan, remain in jail.

Meanwhile, “out on an P11.6 million bail and currently serving as mayor Shariff Saydona Mustapha” is their younger brother and also a principal accused, Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan.

To refresh our memories, the Ampatuans are “accused of masterminding a heinous massacre on 23 November 2009, where 58 people were shot to their deaths and buried in a shallow grave with their mangled cars in Sitio Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao,” a Rappler report says.

Also, their “clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr, the alleged brain of the execution,” died in jail in July 2015.

What makes this case immense is the fact that it became marked in world history as “the single deadliest attack on journalists in the world and worst election-related violence in Philippine history.”

In the realm of dishonors for our country, this takes the cake.

Thirty-two of the 58 victims were journalists who covered the filing of candidacy of then Maguindanao governor aspirant Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. The rest were his family members and supporters.

It seemed unbelievable that such a thing would happen when great democratic freedoms had been enjoyed by Filipinos for decades after the Marcos dictatorship.

Yet the sight of bodies in the shallow grave, bloodied and desecrated offers proof of a major disconnect between what we see and what we hope to believe.

In testimonies, witnesses had incriminated the three brothers, saying they were there when they had meetings to plan the mass murder.

The accused siblings, however, had alibis or reasons to show they were not in said meetings.

The impression among many, hearing details about it, was that the untouchable Ampatuans were lording it over their province like ancient fiefdoms.

Another witness, in fact, attested to seeing one of the brothers at the scene of the crime and handling a weapon like some imagined hero. This testimony ia probably why prosecution believes the Ampatuans will be convicted.

For their part, the brothers’ legal team had put forth lack of evidence such as absence of DNA in the scene.

It has no doubt been a bloody battle in the courtroom, and fortunately, it won’t be long before we know how the gavel will fall.