We want concrete actions to stop the killing of journalists, media people tell President Arroyo
The Philippines have the highest murder rate among journalists in the world after Iraq.
Manila (AsiaNews) In an open letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urges her to go beyond mere rhetoric and instead take concrete steps to stop the series of killings of journalists in the country.
Last Friday, photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag was killed in Jolo (Mindanao Island). The next day, seven bullets killed another journalist, Heherson Hinolan, station manager of Bombo Radyo Aklan in the Visayas.
This year alone, 11 journalists have been killed, the majority of them in Mindanao. "A couple of suspects had been arrested in previous cases, but it is quite telling that not one suspect has been convicted in the 59 killings since 1986," writes the NUJP in a pooled editorial regarding the recent killings of journalists.
Because of the important press coverage following Lumawag's, President Arroyo ordered the Department of Local Government to carry out a thorough investigation into the recent killing.In the meantime, the Jolo police force has offered a P 100,000 (US$ 1,800, 1,300) reward for any information that would lead to Lumawag's killer. The murder itself took place in the late afternoon on a busy street. But Jolo residents reacted to the reward offer with sarcasm because the police has so far failed to solve any murder case on Mindanao.
Some residents told AsiaNews that Lumawag was probably killed because he was going to uncover corruption among local authorities. According to Jolo resident Jun-Jun Reyes the photojournalist "went around town without a guide and, worse, he took video footages of vendors and that's the reason he was shot."
Summary executions are a normal occurrence in Jolo, another resident told AsiaNews. "It may happen today and not tomorrow. But certainly, killings here are not rare, considering the numbers of firearms available."In its letter to the President, the NUJP draws attention to the case of Edgar Damalerio, a reporter killed in 2002 in Mindanao in front of witnesses who identified the perpetrator. "This is an example of what is wrong with our justice system," writes the NUJP. "The witnesses in the case, as well as the family of Damalerio, are constantly under threat, and the government has not done anything to assuage their fear. In fact, the government had removed them from the Witness Protection Program, reinstalling them only after media groups raised hell over it."
The letter criticizes the government for its practice of promising rewards in exchange for information. It points out that "it never made clear how the rewards system was going to be implemented [. . .] apparently convinced that dangling these rewards would be taken to mean that it is doing something".
Killing journalists is not happening in a vacuum, the NUJP goes on to say. "These killings occur in the context of the general breakdown of law and order in this country, where extra-judicial killings have become the norm. In many instances, agents of the government (policemen, soldiers, etc.) are the prime suspects in these murders."
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24/01/2007
