Press Release
July 1, 2009

PIMENTEL ASSAILS UNABATED MURDER OF JOURNALISTS

        Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today questioned the effectiveness of the government's plan of action to protect working journalists in the wake of the unabated slayings of members this professions, particularly in the provinces.

        Pimentel said the killing of six media practitioners in the first half of 2009 alone indicates the lack of an effective strategy on the part of responsible political leaders and law enforcement authorities to address the problem.

        "It would be a grievous mistake if the government would deal with the problem of continuing media killings in a superficial way. At stake is freedom of the press which is indispensable in a democratic society. If journalists will be deterred from exposing graft and other venalities in government and society because of threats to their lives, then our country will find itself sinking deeper in the morass of injustice and decadence," he said.

        The latest casualty was Jonathan Fetalvero, a commentator in radio station DXFM in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur who was shot dead last Saturday. Fetalvero was the 67th journalist to be killed since President Arroyo assumed office in 200l.

        Pimentel said if the law enforcement and justice authorities have acted decisively in solving past cases of media killings, mercenary gunmen and those who hired would not have been emboldened in perpetrating this gruesome crime.

        He lamented that the Philippines has been portrayed as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists because of the series of killings and other risks to which they are exposed. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported this year that the Philippines was among several countries where media workers "were murdered with impunity."

        The senator from Mindanao urged the Philippine National Police to beef up its task force tasked with investigating cases of murders of journalists. Likewise, he prodded the Department of Justice to see to it that state prosecutors should exert greater efforts in the investigation and prosecution of these cases.

        Pimentel also called on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to allocate more funds for the PNP's system for rewarding witnesses to encourage them to come forward, identify the culprits behind the media killings and testify in judicial proceedings.

        He said the government should likewise go out of its way in assisting witnesses whose life is put at risk by putting them under the Witness Protection Program being administered by the DOJ.

        The five other incidents of media killings this year were as follows:

1. On Jan. 22, Badrodin Abbas, 38, peace worker and radio commentator of DXCM Radio Ukay, was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men in Cotabato City.

2. On Feb. 23, radio broadcaster Ernie Rollin, 52, was gunned down by two masked men on his way to radio station DXSY in Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental.

3. On June 3, tabloid reporter Jojo Trajano was killed while covering a drug raid in Rizal.

4. On June 9, Crispin Perez, 66, radio broadcaster of DWDO Heart FM was stabbed several times at his house in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro.

5. On June l2, Antonio Castillo, 45, a tabloid correspondent of Dimasalang, Masbate was driving his motorcycle in Uson town when he was shot down by two men also on motorcycle.

 

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