Philippines - Media Safety
Ilocos, Davao most dangerous for journalists
Source : Philippine Daily Inquirer 09.07.2010
By Julie Alipala
ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Ilocos provinces and Davao Oriental are dangerous to journalists “based on recent incidents of killings,” according to Director General Jesus Verzosa, chief of the Philippine National Police.
Verzosa, who visited the city on Tuesday, said intense political rivalries in provinces in Luzon tended to jeopardize the safety of journalists there while in Davao Oriental, illegal logging could be the main issue.
“These assessments were the result of a series of dialogue conducted among local media practitioners initiated by the Public Relations Office of the Philippine National Police and reports from Task Force Usig,” he said.
The motives for the killings might differ, but the attacks on journalists “remain a primary concern of the PNP and we have Task Force Usig to go about and assist in the investigation,” Verzosa said.
The Philippines has been described as the deadliest country for journalists in terms of reporters’ deaths for 2009 by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Last year’s fatalities numbered 39, including 32 media workers who were killed along with supporters of a gubernatorial candidate in a gruesome massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province on Nov. 23, 2009.
In recent years, the country got as far as the second most dangerous place behind Iraq.
Recent fatalities
Among the recent media fatalities was Jovelito Agustin, 37, a reporter and anchor of radio station dzJC Aksyon Radyo in Vigan City in Ilocos Sur. Agustin was on his way home after an evening broadcast on June 15 when he was killed in an ambush by unidentified men.
Eugene Paet, a reporter of Commando Radio, also in Vigan, was critically wounded in January when he was shot in Bantay town in Ilocos Sur.
In December, Andres Acosta, 46, of dzJC Action Radyo, an affiliate network of Manila Broadcasting Co., died at Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital in Batac, Ilocos Norte, after he was stabbed several times by a still unknown attacker while on his way home.
In the case of Desiderio Camangyan, Verzosa said his campaign against illegal logging could be the reason he was killed. Camangyan was shot dead while hosting a singing contest in Manay town in Davao Oriental.
Jeffrey Tupas, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), lauded the PNP chief for his openness.
“Verzosa has basis for saying that and I subscribe to what he said,” he said in Davao.
Police efforts
But Tupas said the police should double their efforts and run after those responsible for the attacks.
While acknowledging that issues in a particular area could endanger a journalist’s life, Verzosa urged reporters to be professional and temperate. “There are those in danger because of their pronouncements,” he said.
Arlon Serdenia, NUJP chair for Ilocos, said in a phone interview that “some of our colleagues work with the politicians or some under the politicians’ payroll to augment their living.”
What the NUJP has been doing these days, Serdenia said, was to conduct seminars on basic reporting and ethics.
“The poor economic situation of our journalists here made them very vulnerable to unethical practices,” he said.
