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Paradigm shift in the killing of journalists
August 6th, 2013
By Center For Media Freedom And Responsibilities (Philippines).
THE NUMBERS alone should be cause for concern. The killing of journalists is continuing, with 134 killed in the line of duty out of a total number of 201 killed since 1986. Sixteen have been killed since 2010, when Benigno Aquino III assumed the Presidency—on a promise, one might add, to end the killing of journalists and media workers, and the extrajudicial killings of human rights defenders, environmentalists, pastors and priests, left-wing activists, lawyers and judges, and reform-minded local officials.
As disturbing as the numbers are, two of the most recent killings also depart from the usual pattern.
Most of the journalists killed since 1986 were from the communities, with only one from the National Capital Region (NCR), Daniel Hernandez of the People’s Journal, killed in 1997, and another,Marlina Sumera of radio station DZME nine years later, in 2011. These were thought to be mere exceptions to the pattern, established in 1986, in which NCR-based practitioners enjoyed such a level of immunity from the killings most of them once ignored what was happening to their provincial counterparts.
The fact that Richard Kho and Bonifacio Loreto Jr. , who were killed on July 30 this year were based in Metro Manila and were columnist and columnist-publisher, respectively of the defunct tabloid Aksyon Ngayon is an indication that the relative immunity of NCR-based practitioners from the killings that have mostly plagued their province-based counterparts is giving way to the sense among those who resent the reporting and/or commentary of journalists that they could also get away with the murder of practitioners in NCR.
The killing of journalists in the communities has been blamed on the weakness of the justice system at the local level among other factors. This weakness has been long manifest in the involvement of police and military personnel in the killings (some 70 members of police, militia and security forces, for example, are among the suspects in the Ampatuan Massacre of 2009), the shortfall in the number of provincial prosecutors, and the complicity of local officials.
Since 2003 it has been widely assumed that this was not the case in NCR, where journalists supposedly enjoy the protection of the police and the justice system as well as of the local and national governments. It now seems, however, that both the force of the examples of those killers of journalists as well as masterminds in the killings in the communities has not been lost on the killers of Kho and Loreto, and that the protection NCR-based journalists think they have could be an illusion.
Both killings in fact occurred in the same week that broadcast journalist Ces Drilon of the ABS-CBN network was receiving threatening text messages in connection with a report she did on one of the Ampatuan clan’s lawyer’s alleged purchase of Ampatuan properties. The inevitable conclusion is that the Kho and Loreto killings and the threats against Drilon could indicate the further emboldening of those who would silence journalists in the context of the continuing failure of the justice system and the entire government to bring most of the killers of journalists to justice.
Some of the killers of journalists have indeed been prosecuted, convicted and sentenced. But not only are these positive instances a mere handful—10 individuals in the same number of cases convicted out of the hundreds of cases, suspects and accused in the killings (197 individuals are accused of masterminding and carrying out the Ampatuan Massacre alone)—no mastermind has ever been convicted either. In what has become a leading symbol of justice system ineffectuality, the implications of State failure to take the accused masterminds in the killing of Tacurong city journalist Marlene Esperat into custody despite the reissuance of a warrant of arrest is not likely to be lost on other would-be killers of journalists.
Beyond these, however, is the reality of what is happening in the Ampatuan Massacre and other trials. Interminable delays due to technicalities are demonstrating that punishing the masterminds and killers in the murders of journalists could be as forlorn a hope as the passage of a Freedom of Information bill even as they encourage the killing of journalists by those affected by news reports and/or media commentaries.
The result is not only the encouragement of those who would silence journalists by killing them, but also these individuals’ casting a wider net to include even the most prominent practitioners. It’s a chilling indication that the justice system is failing not only in the communities, but in the country’s capital as well. For this the media and the citizenry can blame only State ineffectuality, outright incompetence, and sheer lack of interest and concern in putting a stop to the killing of journalists.
Radio anchor accused of libel for interviewing candidate
June 26th, 2013BY CMFR.
CMFR/Philippines – The governor of Zamboanga del Sur province implicated a radio commentator in a libel case against a losing candidate for mayor, accusing the commentator of “using his radio program in airing (the losing candidate’s) libelous remarks” last 21 June 2013.
Zamboanga del Sur province in Mindanao island is some 1,600 kilometers south of Metro Manila.
On 24 June 2013, dxWO commentator Lito Pedrano sent CMFR a message via a social networking site asking for legal aid as he was being implicated in a libel case filed by governor Antonio Cerilles against lost mayoralty candidate Ruel “Balong” Molina.
Pedrano is a regular employee of dxWO Power 99 FM and anchors the radio program “Aksyon Balita” that airs in the morning, Monday to Saturday.
Pedrano was subpoenaed for the libel complaint on his birthday last 21 June 2013, 10 days after which he has to file a counter-affidavit to refute the evidence presented by the governor’s camp.
In the copy of the subpoena Pedrano sent CMFR, Cerilles alleged that Pedrano allowed Molina to use “Aksyon Balita” as a venue to air Molina’s libelous comments.
On 17 April 2013, Pedrano interviewed then mayoralty candidate Molina regarding the ambush killing of Molina’s 22-year old niece on 16 April 2013. (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/zamboanga/local-news/2013/04/17/mayoralty-bet-s-niece-slain-ambush-driver-hurt-278083)
In the transcript of the radio program attached to the subpoena as evidence, Molina alleged that Cerilles and his wife, former Zambaonga del Sur governor and now congresswoman Aurora Enerio-Cerilles, had “without doubt” the motive to carry out the ambush.
Cerilles and his wife were both running for public office in the May 2013 elections; the husband for governor of the province and the wife for representative of the province’s second district. Both of them won.
Molina was Aurora Cerilles’s chief-of-staff before turning against the Cerilles couple and running for mayor in the town of Kumalarang, under a political party opposed to the Cerilles’. He lost the election.
“My part was only asking Molina regarding the details of the ambush and (the) possible motive (behind) it given the fact (that) he is (a relative) of the slain victim,” Pedrano said in his letter to CMFR.
In a phone interview with CMFR last 25 June 2013, Pedrano added that he publicly reached out to governor Cerilles for comment, “I said we should wait for the results of the investigation (on the ambush) and that we are open for Cerilles to air his side. Cerille’s staff said they would address Molina’s allegations through their own radio stations and blocktime programs.”
Neither Molina nor the Cerilleses could be reached for comment as of press time.
Killing of journalists/media workers Blocktimers and volunteers
February 21st, 2013By CMFR, Melanie Pinlac with research by Paul Dawnson Formaran.
JUST TWO days into the year 2013, a radio anchor was killed in the city of San Pablo, Laguna province. The victim, city councilor and dentist Edgardo “Egay” Adajar, hosted a “blocktime” program supposedly funded by the City Information Office. The program usually focused on illegal gambling and the drug trade in the city.
About 22 percent of the journalists killed for their work since 1986 involve so-called blocktimers. Since 1986, CMFR has recorded 129 cases of work-related killing of journalists and media workers in the Philippines. Adajar was the 28th blocktimer killed in the Philippines since 1986.
“Blocktiming” is a practice in which individuals or groups purchase TV or radio airtime for programs that they “sell” to sponsors.
Trends
The first recorded case of the killing of a blocktimer happened in August 2002, also in San Pablo City, Laguna. Rhode Sonny Alcantara, publisher of the weekly Kokus and host of blocktime TV program Quo Vadis San Pablo, was on his way to work when an unidentified man shot him in the head.
Many believed that Alcantara’s scathing criticism of a local politician allegedly involved in corruption motivated his murder. One of his exposes involved the supposed illegal lease of government-owned land to a shopping mall in San Pablo City, Laguna.
Starting 2002, CMFR recorded at least one work-related killing of a blocktimer each year. A total of 57 individuals—excluding the 32 victims of the Ampatuan Massacre—were killed from January 2002 to January 2013; almost 50 percent had blocktime programs on radio and television.
The highest number of blocktimers killed in a year was five, which happened in 2006. These included the killing of Rolly Cañete,Fernando Batul, couple George and Maricel Vigo, and Armando “Rachman” Pace.
The victims were mostly blocktiming on radio. Only Alcantara had been actively blocktiming on television before he was killed. Adajar had produced and handled a talk show program in a local TV channel in the late 1990s.
Part-time media
These blocktimers had other jobs. Some published and/or edited their own newspapers, while others wrote opinion columns. A few worked for non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups. Others were allegedly spokespersons, political advisers, or publicists of politicians. Or, they themselves were the politicos.
Some of these politicos-blocktimers were previously employed as reporters/correspondents of local news organizations before they decided to run for public office. One example was Aldion Layao.
Veteran radio broadcaster and barangay chairman Layao started his broadcasting work in 1986 as a volunteer reporter for dxZM of the University of Mindanao. Before running for elections in 2010, Layao was a reporter for RGMA Davao City. In an interview with CMFR his wife said that Layao had been known for his public service work while in radio. He had to stop broadcasting in early 2010 when he ran for the chairmanship of the barangay council; he however returned to broadcasting through the blocktime program “Kapitan Aldion Layao” over dxRP in 2011 and 2012.
Advocates
Some of the blocktimers killed in the past ten years were advocates of good governance, human rights, and environment protection. They criticized local politicians, government officials, and even businessmen for allowing illegal gambling, illegal logging, and other human rights violations to thrive in their communities.
Before starting her career as a radio anchor and columnist in 2000, Marlene Esperat was employed in the Department of Agriculture in Region XII which had been the subject of her exposes. In the 1990s, Esperat discovered misappropriation of the funds by some local agriculture officials. She became a resident ombudsman at the Agriculture department. She had administrative and criminal cases against allegedly corrupt government officials, among whom the alleged masterminds behind her 24 March 2005 murder—Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay.
The gunman and his accomplices have been convicted by a local court in Cebu in 2006. The alleged masterminds are currently facing murder charges in a court in Makati City.
Volunteer Broadcasters
Aside from blocktimers, seven “volunteer” reporters have been killed in the Philippines. One such case is that of Edgar Damalerio in Pagadian City, Zamboanga province. (Volunteer reporters do not get any salary from their media organizations. However, there have been instances in which volunteer reporters were eventually hired as regular employees.)
Damalerio was the managing editor of the weekly newspaper Zamboanga Scribe and a correspondent for the Mindanao Gold Star. He hosted “Enkwentro” (Encounter), a program aired over the local cable TV channel. He was also a commentator for radio station dxKP.
Damalerio was known for exposing the illegal activities of local politicians, and police and military officials in his province. Like Esperat, he filed cases against these officials. A few months before he was killed in May 2002, Damalerio had reported the allegedly anomalous purchase of passenger jeeps by the Pagadian City government.
Fighting impunity
Overall, there had only been conviction in 10 work-related killings of journalists/media workers since 1986. Four of these 10 cases involved blocktimers and volunteer broadcasters—Esperat, Cantoneros, Pace and Damalerio.
The killing of other blocktimers and volunteer broadcasters are unsolved—13 cases are in court, four have resulted in acquittal/dismissal, two have been archived temporarily, and 13 left “cold” at the investigation level.
