Politicians Face Murder Charges Following Journalist Killings in Philippines

Filipino police have filed murder charges against two local politicians and a police officer over the separate killings of two journalists last week, according to news reports.

“Murder charges had been filed against them based on the strength of testimonies from several witnesses,” national police spokesman Leonardo Espina Espina was quoted as saying. He added that politics could be among the motives for the killings.

Both Desidario Camangyan of Sunshine FM Radio, killed on June 14, and Joselito Agustin, from the radio station DZJC Aksyon Radyo, killed on Wednesday 16 June, were reportedly vocal in covering corruption in the country.

Village head Romeo Antoling and police officer Dennis Jess Lumikid have been charged with the assassination of Camangyan, who was known for his anti-mining and anti-logging editorials. They have not yet been arrested.

Meanwhile, Pacifico Velasco, who was elected vice mayor of Bacarra town in the Ilocos Norte province last month, and his aide Leonardo Banaag have been charged with the killing of Agustin, but they too have yet to be detained.

Media reports also said that three men have been identified and linked to the murder of a third Filipino journalist, Nestor Bedolido, who was shot on June 19. It is believed that the death of Bedolido, a reporter for Kastigador, a weekly newspaper financed by a group of politicians, may also have been politically motivated.

Speaking following the recent developments in the cases, International Press Institute (IPI) Director David Dadge welcomed the investigations but also reiterated his call for an end to impunity in the Philippines.

“These investigations and charges are very welcome in a country now infamous for the impunity enjoyed by the murderers of journalists, but this is not enough. Those responsible for the killings of these three journalists – and the many more who have been killed in the Philippines in recent years – need to be arrested and tried in a court of law.”

The Philippines was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists last year, according to IPI’s Death Watch, accounting for 38 of the 110 journalists killed across the globe in 2009. So far this year three journalists have been killed in the Philippines, making the Asian island nation the joint third most dangerous country for journalists in 2010, alongside Pakistan, and behind Mexico and Honduras. (Louise Hallman - International Press Institute)


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Filipino broadcaster killed in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 23, 2009) – A Filipino broadcaster was gunned down while on his way to work in Mindanao, reports said on Monday.

Ernie Rollin, who worked for dusty, was killed by two gunmen at around 5.30 a.m. at a parking area near a gas station in Oroquieta City in the province of Misaims Occidental.

Rollin was parking his motorcycle when the masked men attacked him. The victim usually parks his motorcycle in the area and takes a commuter bus for work in Ozamiz City.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack and police said it is still investigating the killing. The motive of the murder is unknown, but Rollin was the eighth journalist killed in the Philippines since last year and the 63rd murdered since 2001 under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's watch.

Media groups condemned the killing of Rullen.

Last December, gunmen also killed a radio commentator Leo Mila in San Roque town in the central Filipino province of Samar. Mila, who worked with the Radyo Natin, was attacked while on his way to work.

The International Press Institute's (IPI) annual World Press Freedom Review released this month said Asia replaced the Middle-East as the deadliest region for journalists last year, with 26 reporters, photographers and editors losing their lives in retaliation for their work or in civil conflicts.

It said though more journalists were killed in Iraq than in any other country in 2008 for the sixth year in a row, Pakistan became the second deadliest place for journalists as chaos gripped the country's politics and conflict spread along the border with Afghanistan.

The annual report by IPI which this year focuses on Asia also shows that in many cases where journalists are murdered, the crimes are often never prosecuted.

”Impunity remains a contagion in the region, particularly in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, but the murderers of journalists are also escaping prosecution in leading democracies such as India,” IPI Director David Dadge said in releasing the report.
“Those who want to stifle free expression and frighten journalists into silence and self-censorship are succeeding because of impunity,” Dadge said.

The IPI listed the following as the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists in 2008 - Iraq (14), Pakistan (6), India, Philippines, Mexico (5 each), Georgia, Russia (4 each), Thailand (3) and Somalia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Croatia (2 each).

IPI includes in its “Death Watch” journalists and media staff who were deliberately targeted because of their profession - either because of their investigative reporting or simply because they were journalists. IPI also includes journalists who were caught in the crossfire while covering dangerous assignments. (Mindanao Examiner)