51 journalists killed since 2001 – task force

MANILA, Philippines - At least 51 journalists have been killed since 2001 and a total of 22 suspects in the murders are now being hunted down, the Task Force Usig said yesterday.

The task force is a unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) investigating the journalists’ killings.

Superintendent Henry Libay of the task force’s secretariat said the 32 journalists killed in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre were not included in the figure.

“Of the 51 murders, we have filed 41 cases, arrested 37 persons. Thirteen suspects surrendered, eight were convicted, seven were either killed in encounter or died a natural death. We have 22 suspects at large and are now being hunted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and other operating units of the PNP,” he said.

Task Force Usig was created on May 19, 2006 but the PNP also included cases of journalists murdered since 2001, when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo started her term.

Libay said if there is no apparent motive in a journalist’s killing, “we automatically consider it to be work-related.”

Radio broadcaster Nilo Baculo was shot dead near his house in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro on June 9. He was the 28th member of media killed since President Aquino assumed office in 2010.