Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Vol. IV, No. 27 August 8 - 14, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
Attacks
on Filipino Journalists Reach Crisis Proportion In
a span of eight days, six community-based journalists were attacked on
separate occasions. Two of them were killed, bringing the number of
murdered journalists to 54 since 1986. The police responded by saying it
would relax the rules on firearms for journalists, but media groups
rejected the plan, saying arming journalists would not alleviate their
plight. BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA AND CARLOS H. CONDE
According
to Cris Guarin, the Superadyo station manager, Abayon had been drinking
with the suspect, William Pael, the night before. The victim was on his
way home when he was shot near the home of Pacquiao in barangay Labangon,
General Santos City, Guarin said. Guarin
said Abayon was just a field reporter, not a commentator. "I am not
aware that he made enemies because of his job," he said in a
telephone interview from General Santos. He said a witness had seen the
shooting. The police are still investigating while the suspect is still at
large. Guarin
was not inclined to declare the shooting as job-related. "Let's just
wait for the complete police investigation," he said. He said Abayon
had been with RGMA Superadyo "for years"; he described the
reporter as "okay." This
is the second time this year that a General Santos City journalist was
attacked. On June 17, Radyo Natin broadcaster Eliseo "Ely"
Binoya was shot dead in the same city. On
July 31, Ilocos Norte broadcaster Rogelio Mariano was shot dead in Laoag
City; he had just come from his radio program where he, according to a
report by the Philippine Daily
Inquirer, "was his usual hard-hitting self," criticizing
jueteng (illegal numbers game) operations in the city and the police for
not doing anything about the problem. According to the NUJP chapter in
Baguio-Benguet, Mariano also exposed the alleged irregularities at the the
Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative. Mariano, 44, was shot at least 10 times
in the back and in the head. Five
days later, on Aug. 5, Arnel Manalo, a correspondent for DZRH and the
Manila tabloid Bulgar, was killed by unidentified gunmen. He was also
known for his hard-hitting brand of journalism. Less
than 24 hours after Manalo's murder, three broadcasters of Bantay Radyo
Cebu -- George Benaojan, Kelvin Carillo and Gildoer Fuentes - survived an
ambush in Cebu City. There are, however, questions on whether the three
were the targets of the attack or whether the attack itself was due to
their journalistic work. (The three have other businesses; at least one of
them admits that he does "media consultancy" for the National
Bureau of Investigation. They were also armed.) The
NUJP has demanded an independent investigation into the murders and asked
Vice President Noli de Castro, himself a former broadcaster, to take
action. The
police have responded to the crisis by saying that they would relax the
rules for journalists to carry firearms, a move the NUJP criticized,
calling it irresponsible. "Allowing
journalists to arm themselves is passing the buck. It absolves law
enforcers of their failure to protect citizens and to go after criminals.
It also assigns blame to journalists: because we're not armed, we're
vulnerable -- this is what the PNP seems to be saying. Will PNP spokesman
Chief. Supt. Joel Goltiao and PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane
Jr. soon be blaming the victims of kidnapping and robbery for their
plight?" the group said in a statement on Saturday. "Journalists
are not demanding special privileges from the government. Journalists are
demanding that law enforcers and other government officials do their job
by bringing murderers of journalists to justice, thus destroying the
climate of impunity that has only encouraged attacks against the
press." Arming
the journalists, the group said, only worsens the problem.
“It prevents the media, the authorities and the public from
finding the right measures to solve the continued killings,” it said.
Authorities should arrest, prosecute and convict the killers of
journalists, it said. “This
lame, knee-jerk response is a virtual admission by the law-enforcement
authorities of how inutile they are against those that seek to silence the
press of this country,” the NUJP said.
The
PNP’s announcement came in the wake of the death of two community-based
journalists, Roger Mariano of dzJC in San Nicolas town in the province of
Ilocos Norte, on July 31, and Arnel Manalo, a correspondent of dzRH and
the Filipino tabloid Bulgar in the town of Bauan in the province of
Batangas on August 5. The
NUJP reported that Mariano and Manalo were the 53rd and 54th
journalists-victims since 1986. The
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said seven journalists
were killed in 2003 making it the worst year yet for Philippine media
after democracy was supposedly restored in 1986, 14 years after martial
rule. Most of the murders of
journalists in Asia occur in the Philippines. Climate
of impunity
Sadly,
the NUJP said, not one of the 54 cases since 1986 has been resolved while
suspects who have been identified by witnesses are allowed to escape from
police custody. One such case
was that of Edgar Damalerio, a journalist from the city of Pagadian in the
province of Zamboanga, who, according to eyewitnesses, was murdered by a
policeman in 2002. The
unsolved crimes against journalists create a climate of impunity and only
encourage attacks against the press, the NUJP said. Journalists
from other parts of the country condemned the attacks. “We continue to
challenge the Philippine government to exercise its political will and
bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Ely Suyom, spokesperson of the
NUJP-Antique Chapter. Journalists
in Iloilo wore black shirts with the words “Stop Killing Journalists”
and black armbands and lit candles of support for their two slain
colleagues on Friday, August 6, in front of the old provincial capitol in
Iloilo, a province in central Philippines. The
Baguio-Benguet chapter of the NUJP in northern Philippines likewise
strongly condemned the killing of the two slain journalists. In a statement, the group said the assault against media
practitioners is an assault of the right of the public to information.
International
support
International
media groups also expressed their support for the Filipino journalists
under attack. Reporters Without Borders, a media group that defends
imprisoned journalists and press freedom around the world, voiced its deep
concern about the continuing climate of impunity in the Philippines.
In
a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Reporters Without Borders
condemned the murders of Mariano and Manalo and called for “the
deployment of all necessary means in the investigations in order to
identify both those who carried the killings out and the instigators.”
Ann
Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
called on the authorities to carry out full investigations of the violent
acts against the press, to find those responsible and to enforce the law.
“We are shocked at the regularity of these deadly attacks on Filipino
journalists,” she said. On
the other hand, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a
global organization representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide,
called for the establishment of an independent commission to inquire into
the failure of the Philippine government to successfully prosecute any
suspects involved in the murder of journalists.
IFJ
president Christopher Warren, in a statement, said that the attacks on
Filipino journalists are an endemic problem in the country that needs an
independent inquiry. “The
culture of impunity in the Philippines that allows journalists to be
targeted in this way needs to be defeated,” he said. The
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
said the murders of Mariano and Manalo “appears to be a cold-blooded
attempt to silence a critical voice.” “The link between a free and independent press and democracy cannot be overstated. Intimidation and murder of journalists is therefore a crime against society as a whole, not just against the individuals targeted,” UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura said. Bulatlat We want to know what you think of this article.
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