MANILA, 14 April 2995 - An international media group yesterday scored the inability of Philippine authorities to arrest the masterminds in the killings of outspoken media personalities, saying this has led to even more attacks on Filipino journalists.
Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders news editor Jean Francois Julliard said in a press conference that the main problem was the lack of conviction of journalists' killers and the inability to prosecute and punish the brains behind these murders.
He added that the "culture of fear" caused by the proliferation of firearms in the Philippine countryside merely made matters worse.
Vincent Brossel, chief of RSF's Asia-Pacific Desk, cited the murder of Tacurong Midland Review columnist Marlene Esperat as a case where arresting the mastermind was all important. Noting that cops themselves claimed the army intelligence paymaster in the Esperat case had shelled out P120,000 (about $2,000) for the journalist's murder, Brossel said the team had to be acting on orders from a powerful individual or a powerful group.
According to Brossel, the Esperat case was complicated as talks with the family of the slain journalist uncovered more than a dozen possible masterminds, going up to national levels of government. Various government agencies investigating the Esperat murder case are feuding over the identity of the mastermind.
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Esperat's case was far from solved despite the arrest of four suspects because authorities failed to identify a budget officer of the Department of Agriculture who had also been linked to the columnist's death.
Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, who presented four suspects to media on Tuesday, responded yesterday by saying the investigation is going on.
"We have not identified the mastermind," said Reyes, concurrent chairman of the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
"We never said that the investigation has been finished completely. It's still ongoing," Reyes said.
Gonzalez said the police missed out on an extrajudicial confession to a prosecutor in Sultan Kudarat province by a suspect who claimed to have recruited the four arrested for Esperat's killing.
Gonzalez said that a Department of Agriculture "budget officer" and another unnamed employee were the possible masterminds.
Enemies of the State
Meanwhile, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chair Inday Espina-Varona said attacks against journalists are reflective of the situation where the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have tried to brand journalists' organizations as "enemies of the state."
She challenged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to issue a categorical policy on the controversy and order a halt to the smear campaign against media groups committed to uncovering official wrongdoings and pursuing justice for slain journalists.
"It is not our fingers on the trigger, Madame president. It is not our hands that dip into the public coffers," she said.
In general, Julliard, Brossel and Espina were in agreement that the attacks against media practitioners could be linked to a worsening human rights problem, and warned the government that its efforts to curb terrorism and a long-running communist insurgency should not be at the expense of civil liberties.
Red Batario, representative of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and the Center for Community Journalism Development, reminded journalists that attacks on media personalities were not isolated. There was also a mounting number of extra-judicial killings of activists, lawyers, judges and human rights workers.
But the RSF acknowledged that "things are improving" mainly because of the display of political will by some government officials, and by the formation of Task Force Newsman.
Professional Standards
Brossel and Julliard also noted the urgent need to improve ethics and professional standards in Philippine journalism, while stressing there was no excuse for the continuing murders of media practitioners.
The RSF lists 51 journalists murdered since 1986. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) lists 66. Vincent Brossel, chief of RSF's Asia-Pacific Desk, said the organization lists journalists only when it is sure that their deaths were work related. The IFJ and its local affiliate, NUJP, include all slain journalists on the list until conviction shows their deaths were not work related.
The IFJ had earlier called for an end to "the witch-hunt against Filipino journalists," calling it further proof of the persecution of media practitioners in the country.
The AFP accused several journalist organizations, including IFJ affiliate, the NUJP, of being "influenced" by the Communist Party of the Philippines, in a government report titled "Knowing the Enemy."
"An intrinsic culture of victimization and persecution has been allowed to infect the world of journalism in the Philippines and it must not be allowed to continue," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
Warren added "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," said Warren.
