Probe killings of journalists in South, government told

A global press watchdog urged Philippine authorities yesterday to swiftly investigate the murders of at least four journalists in Mindanao in the last 17 months.

"The government must react now, by mobilizing the police and judiciary to investigate these murders as a matter of urgency," said Robert Menard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a letter to Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina.

RSF defends press freedom throughout the world.

Its expression of concern followed the murder late Monday of journalist Edgar Damalerio, who had worked for state-run radio station dxKP and was editor of the Zamboanga Scribe weekly newspaper in Pagadian City.

Damalerio, 33, was shot dead while returning from an assignment in a jeep with his friends.

He was said to have written numerous articles about corruption in political and police circles in the troubled South where security forces are fighting armed separatist groups.

Damalerio was the second journalist to be killed in Mindanao this year. In April, journalist and human rights activist Benjaline "Beng" Hernandez was killed in Cotabato.

In addition, at least two journalists were killed on Mindanao in 2001, making this one of the world’s most dangerous regions for journalists, RSF said.

"For several years now, Reporters Without Borders has condemned the fact that those who have killed journalists in the provinces of Mindanao Island remain unpunished," it said.

The organization that defends press freedom called on Lina to "intervene so as to ensure that the security services identify those who carried out and those who ordered (these killings)."

The Philippine Press Institute, the country’s association of newspapers, said Damalerio was the 38th journalist killed in the Philippines since the mid-1980s.

It said not one of these killings had been solved. — AFP