Mindanao journalists alarmed over killings

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — "It’s like class annihilation."

This was how Jerry Orcullo, president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC), described the recent killings of journalists, the latest of which was Saturday night’s fatal ambush of Davao City broadcaster Juan "Jun" Pala.

"Killing a mediaman is not only an attack on press freedom but it is also an attack on democracy," Orcullo said, citing the more than 40 Filipino journalists murdered since democracy was restored in 1986.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) also expressed alarm over the killings, saying, "This is a press under siege by a society that increasingly shoots or arrests its messengers."

To condemn the murders of their colleagues, media practitioners in Cagayan de Oro City and Northern Mindanao and their sympathizers will take to the streets this week.

The COPC met yesterday afternoon to plan out the indignation rally.

Pala, a hard-hitting commentator of Davao radio station dxGO, was walking home from a card game at a neighbor’s house in Davao City when he was gunned down.

It was the third attempt to kill the 49-year-old Pala in the past two years.

His killing came on the heels of the Aug. 20 murder of another Mindanao radioman, Rico Ramirez of Agusan del Sur broadcast outfit dxFS-FM.

Orcullo said that while journalists, especially hard-hitting broadcasters like Pala and Ramirez, have their biases and prejudices, their killers should not have resorted to such violence.

"We have the law. They should let the wheels of justice roll," he said.

Orcullo lamented that while journalists are working in dire conditions, they are also subjected to these acts of harassment and attacks.

"Please don’t kill us. We are already economically dead, Don’t kill us physically," he said.

But he urged his fellow journalists, especially those in Mindanao, not to let the murders of Pala and Ramirez sow fear in their hearts.

"We should not let their deaths discourage us or let the threat of death cause us to temper our commentaries and reports. But we should be watchful and vigilant because the killing of journalists is now becoming a trend, a very alarming trend in this country, and there is no sector that is taking up the cudgels for us," he said.

The NUJP said the recent murders give the Philippines the "dubious distinction... as the most dangerous place to practice journalism," alongside Colombia.

The NUJP demanded "speedy, decisive action from government officials" to halt the spate of killings of journalists.