Press Release
February 24, 2009

Latest media killing reconfirms RP's image for most murders - Gordon

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today said the latest media killing only added up to the rising number of murders in the country which placed the Philippines in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records as the country with the highest number of murders.

Gordon bemoaned this as he strongly condemned and expressed alarm over the murder of Ernie Rullen, yet another media practitioner killed in the province.

"Ngayon may pinatay na naman sa Ozamis City, katulad ng mga kasama natin ditong mga mediamen. Ang pangalan niya ay Ernie Rullen of Bantay-Lungsod, DXSY Ozamis," he said.

"I stood up many times in Congress. I have stood up and I will stand up again in the Senate and condemn that another mediaman has been killed," he added.

Rullen was ambushed around 5:30 am on Monday in Oroqueta City while he was about to report for work. He parked his motorcycle at a waiting shed and went to a nearby gasoline station when he was gunned down by unidentified armed men.

The victim hosted Bantay Lunsod, a morning blocktime program on DXSX in Ozamis City .

Rullen, aside from being the second media practitioner killed this year after Badrodin Abbas who was killed on Jan. 22, is the 64th journalist killed since 2001, during the Arroyo administration.

The Philippines, with 3,525 homicides in 2004, has been included in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records as the country with the highest number of murders for the latest year available in the records of the United Nations.

Gordon has made it a personal crusade to fight for slain media practitioners and victims of extrajudicial killings.

His fight for the rule of law and fight for murder victims started when his father, the late Mayor James Leonard T. Gordon, was gunned down by an escaped inmate of the National Penitentiary on Feb. 20, 1967, while talking with a constituent on the first floor of city hall.

Gordon stressed that the media killings is killing press freedom in the country and has instilled a victim culture in the people.

"That is practically killing press freedom in this country. That (victim culture) is what is happening to our country whether you like it or not. We have learned to accept, wala tayong magawa, masyadong malakas ang kalaban, hindi rin ilalabas sa media, hindi rin naman iimbestigahin. Yan ang nangyayari sa atin," he said.

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