A culture of impunity

The murder of Tacurong Midland Review columnist Marlene Esperat came as a shock on two counts: her killing having been witnessed by her children, and of her being silenced forever from exposing anomalies. And I thought women writers would never be gunned down, that male journalists would be the targets of assassins’ bullets.

I can recall women writers during the martial law regime being hailed to court and military boards for investigation; feeling harassed the women were, but no one was killed. Were the supposed enemies of unbridled press freedom – and they include politicians and war lords – afraid of female journalists, or did they think it was tactically unwise to gun them down? Now no journalist – female or male – is safe from the guns and bullets of masterminds of murders.

The increasing number of journalists being killed in the Philippines has caused no small amount of discomfiture among media practitioners and media monitors here and abroad. Figures provided by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) show that since 1986 – the end of the Marcos regime – 66 have been killed; in 2004 alone, the number was 13, and this year, three. Those figures indicate that the number of journalists slain in the Philippines is next to that in Iraq – where war continues. One fears that more and more will be killed in the practice of their profession if the government does not do something about it. In fact there is a gnawing feeling that the government is not about to do so as it mounts its anti-terrorism drive.

Visiting journalist groups see in the killings a "culture of impunity." It’s as though we were living in the Wild West, where guns blaze, leaving bodies sprawled in the seething sun. And the murderers, and their masterminds, go scot free.

Vincent Brossel, chief of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Asia-Pacific Desk, has expressed alarm at the non-apprehension of masterminds of killings although their identities are known to the police, and money is being shelled out for, for example, Esperat’s murder. The masterminds of the killing of Pagadian (also in Mindanao) journalist Edgar Demalerio last February and of the Demalerio murder eyewitness Edgar Amoro have not been punished.

In the case of Laguna slain broadcaster Noel Villarente, Brossel said the suspected killer had been freed despite the testimony of witnesses. The only thing that happened was that four cops got the P200,000 reward for the arrest of the suspect.

Reporters san Frontiers (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders, the NUJP and the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) link the attacks against media practitioners to a worsening human rights problem.

Red Batario, representative of the FFFJ and the Center for Community Journalism Development (CCJD) reminds journalists that attacks on media should be linked to the general human rights situation in the Philippines where there has been mounting extra-judicial killings of activists, lawyers, judges and human rights workers. He also slammed efforts by government sectors, especially the military, to brand journalists as "enemies".

Inday Espina-Varona, NUJP chair, says attacks against journalists are reflective of general social situations. She recoils at Armed Forces of the Philippines efforts to brand journalists’ organizations as "enemies of the state".

A Power Point presentation called "Know Your Enemy" links media organizations such as the NUJP and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism to communists. In a statement, Ms. Varona and the NUJP secretary-general, Carlos H. Conde describe the military policy of surveillance as nothing but an attempt to constrict the democratic space that Filipinos fought so hard to regain. (The Power Point video) seeks to suppress our constitutionally protected right to dissent. By targeting organizations that operate legally and openly, particularly in the media, the military suppresses not only criticism by the press but also the people’s basic right to air their grievances against government.

"This is not only McCarthyism, this is a manifestation of the fascism that now pervades in our land, as can be gleaned from the murders of journalists, human rights and political activists, and ordinary citizens."

But the media is not about to be cowed into submission. Groups and individuals express the need for vigilance, and opposing restrictive forces reflective of the dark days of martial rule. The Negros Press Club demands that government prove its avowed adherence to democratic principles by ordering the immediate recall of "Knowing the Enemy," and issuing a public apology from those responsible for its creation and use.

Frank Gupit of the Manila Broadcasting Corporation-affiliate Radyo Natin, who has been charged with defamation for allegedly accusing someone of bribery, insists he will continue hosting his radio program from his detention cell. "We will not stop exposing anomalies in the provincial government. We will see what the reaction of the people of Davao Oriental will be," he said.

Yesterday, the Metro Manila Radio Reporters Organization launched a wear Black on Friday protest against continued media killings and other assaults on press freedom. Ms. Varona texted journalists and sympathizers to join the protest nationwide and show the enemies of press freedom that "we shall not be cowed. PASS IT ON!"

IFJ President Christopher Warren said that the latest developments prove that now is the time for the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to recognize the seriousness of the situation. Journalists are simply unable to carry out their work in this climate of fear and intimidation, and with the world’s attention increasingly aware of their plight, now is the time "to halt this persecution once and for all," he said.

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KUNSUMIDO. This section carries consumer complaints. I know there are no lanes for cyclists, but there should be rules on where they can and cannot drive their bikes. Well, they should not be allowed on major thoroughfares. Just as motorized pedicabs or sikads should not be. Are they allowed to overtake cars and make zigzags around cars? If they hit, or are hit by cars, who is held liable – the cyclist or car driver?

And what are the penalties? Chair Bayani Fernando, please answer.

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