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Media
Killings Turning Philippines Into Another Colombia
It
would be a mistake for journalists to think that they are being singled out. The
Macapagal-Arroyo government and all the previous regimes have records of
human-rights abuses, particularly against ordinary Filipinos in the countryside.
It is no coincidence that while the State has been criticized for threatening
the people’s civil liberties under the guise of anti-terrorism, the killings
of journalists continue. It is likewise not surprising that journalists,
especially those who dare to speak out or write about these abuses, are being
targeted for elimination. The regime appears to be just being consistent.
By
Carlos H. Conde
Bulatlat.com-Mindanao Bureau
AT
the rate Filipino journalists are getting killed, the country is dangerously
close to becoming a Colombia, considered one of the worst countries in the world
for journalists. In fact, according to the Brussels-based International
Federation of Journalists, the Philippines is just one murder shy of matching
the number of murdered Colombian journalists so far this year, which is six.
“The
Philippines is in danger of becoming the new Colombia as one of the world’s
most dangerous places to practice journalism,” said IFJ president Christopher
Warren.
According
to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), which maintains a
database on attacks against Filipino journalists, this year “is turning out to
be one of the worst years of journalists’ assassinations on record.”
Warren,
in his Sept. 4 statement, expressed an exasperation that is familiar nowadays
among Filipino journalists: “The government of the Philippines must
investigate these cases immediately. The IFJ has expressed its concern to the
president of the Philippines about the murder of media workers four times this
year and yet the murders continue.”
Local
journalists are convinced that the series of murders is sending a chilling
effect to the media, particularly those who work in the provinces where most of
these killings occur. The murders have also unnerved them to the point that many
of them are now wondering whether theirs is indeed the freest press in Southeast
Asia
The
murder on Aug. 20 of Rico Ramirez, a reporter, cameraman and spinner for DXSF,
an FM station in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, southern Philippines was
particularly worrisome, they said, coming as it did the day after Noel
Villarante, a hard-hitting radio commentator was shot dead in Laguna south of
Manila.
According
to the CMFR database, Ramirez was the fifth journalist killed this year and the
41st since the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown in 1986. Not one of
these cases has been solved.
Sketchy
Reports
of Ramirez’s murder are still sketchy. According to Chief Supt. Alberto Olario,
the police director of the Caraga Region, a resident found Ramirez’s body
sprawled by the roadside. The journalist was shot in the back of the head and
was barely alive. The resident brought him to a hospital, where he died a few
hours later.
DXSF
station manager Max Tutor told CMFR that Ramirez just got off from work and was
shot about a hundred meters’ away from the station. Tutor said two men had
been waiting to ambush Ramirez. He also cited reports that said the journalist
did not die on the spot but that “no one brought him to the hospital.”
In
any case, Tutor said Ramirez may have been killed “because of his recent
exposes on the crime and drug syndicates operating in the area.”
Olario,
meanwhile, said, “We don’t know why he was shot. We don’t have any
eyewitness. He did not make any revelations before he died.” He surmised that
the murder “could have been work-related because he was known for his
criticisms of local officials.”
Indeed,
Filipino journalists known for their hard-hitting reports and commentary have
been the main targets in the series of murders this year and in previous years.
IFJ’s
Warren, in a Sept. 4 letter to
Arroyo, said: “Murder and violent attacks on journalists are the worst forms
of attack on press freedom and civil society. Attacks such as these must be
dealt with swiftly in order to ensure press freedom in the Philippines.
According to our information, no cases relating to the murder of media workers
have been solved since 1986, illustrating a disturbing lack of action by the
Government of the Philippines.”
Immediate
investigation
The
IFJ, Warren continued, “urges you to mount an immediate investigation into the
murder of Rico Ramirez and other journalists killed in the Philippines and to
bring their killers to justice as a matter of priority. We ask that you take
appropriate measures to ensure the safety of all journalists in the
Philippines.”
The
IFJ, he said, “insists that your government publicly condemns these continuing
attacks on journalists. This condemnation must be carried out with urgency if
journalists in the Philippines are to maintain their freedom. Finally, we urge
you to take necessary actions to guarantee the safety of all journalists working
in the Philippines.”
The
case of Edgar Damalerio, the managing editor of the Zamboanga Scribe, a weekly
in Pagadian City, illustrated just how elusive justice is in the Philippines.
Damalerio was killed in May last year. Witnesses saw a police officer, Guillermo
Wapile, shoot Damalerio. Wapile was later arrested but escaped the custody of
his fellow police officers under mysterious circumstances.
Last
week, Damalerio’s widow Gemma told this writer: “We are still waiting and
fighting. We are still in pain.” She added: “To this day, I am still
outraged that he was allowed to escape.”
The
series of murders and the fact that not one case has been solved since 1986 have
elicited denunciations from journalists and media groups.
“I
am afraid that Rico Ramirez would end up as another statistic in the growing
list of slain reporters in the country. It's really frustrating that most of the
cases on murdered journalists in this country have remained unsolved. I am
afraid that the Ramirez murder file (like the files on Edgar Damalerio and other
slain Filipino journalists) would gather dust in the police stations. How many
more reporters would be murdered before we see journalist killers brought to
justice?” said Herbie Gomez, executive editor of the Cagayan de Oro City-based
Gold Star Daily and the coordinator in that city of the National Union of
Journalists in the Philippines.
Armed
journalists
Gomez
said some of his colleagues have, in fact, started arming themselves. He said he
can’t blame them. “I find it a
bit disturbing that some of my colleagues are arming themselves but I can't
blame them for feeling this way. The government has failed to give them a sense
of security. If a person who is under threat feels that government can't protect
him, common sense would tell him that he should start thinking of ways to defend
himself,” Mr. Gomez said.
The
killings have also unnerved journalists, who are concerned about the “chilling
effect” these murders would have among themselves. “It is meant to suppress
hard-hitting, critical, outspoken, enterprising journalists who are able to dig
up corruption and abuse of power of government officials. It's a reprisal
against daring journalists. I see more of these killings,” said Dario Agnote,
a Manila-based reporter for Kyodo, a Japanese news agency.
The
whole notion of the Philippine press being the freest in Southeast Asia is also
being challenged by these murders. “At the rate our colleagues are getting
killed, I don’t think we can still claim that,” said Carmelito Francisco, a
reporter of BusinessWorld who is based in Davao City, in Mindanao, where many of
these murders took place. “We may not be muzzled by the powers that be but
these deaths are the best gag,” he added.
The
murders have not elicited an outcry from the public, which could help, media
groups have said, in pressuring the police to double their effort in arresting
the killers. Rey Hulog, the executive director of the Association of
Broadcasters in the Philippines, thinks the reason is the low credibility of the
Philippine media, which is free and rambunctious but is also partisan and
corrupt.
In
fact, Mr. Hulog said he wouldn’t be surprised if many of the victims were
murdered not for their journalistic work but for their political partisanship,
for instance supporting one politician and attacking another. “We have cases
like that and it could explain why the public doesn’t seem to be bothered
about all these killings,” he said.
“It
looks like the image of the Filipino journalist as a knight in shining armor has
been tarnished, so people are not outraged anymore by what has been happening to
him,” Mr. Hulog said.
Immaturity
Melinda
Quintos-de Jesus, executive director of the CMFR said the killings “are a
reflection of the immaturity of our entire system, that when somebody hits you
with words, you want to get back at him with force.”
She
said the Philippine press and those in power, as well as the public, “have not
established a level of civic dialogue.” This, de Jesus added, is borne out of
a serious lack of understanding of the role of the press.
But
the bottom-line is this: What’s happening to the press reflects what is
happening at the society at large, said Edgar Cadagat, the chairman of the NUJP.
He said these murders and the violations of press freedom in the Philippines are
“a reflection of what is happening in a society where human-rights abuses
abound, where basic democratic rights of the people are trampled upon by the
regime."
Cadagat
said it would be a mistake for journalists to think that they are being singled
out. “This regime and all the previous regimes have records of human-rights
abuses, particularly against ordinary Filipinos in the countryside. It is not a
coincidence that while the State represses its people using its so-called
anti-terrorism war as an excuse, the killings of journalists continue. It is
likewise not surprising that journalists, especially those who dare to speak out
or write about these abuses, are being targeted for elimination. The regime is
just being consistent.” Bulatlat.com
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