EDITORIAL - Impunity

Only a handful of journalists drawn from a lot were allowed to ask questions at the joint press conference of President Aquino and US President Barack Obama. And among the few questions asked by a foreign journalist was what the Aquino administration was doing about the high number of media workers being murdered in this country.

Aquino said the record “speaks for itself” as he cited the large number of defendants now on trial for the massacre of 58 people, mostly journalists, in Maguindanao in 2009. But this is just one case, and while about 100 people have been arrested and indicted for the massacre, including the accused masterminds, at least another hundred suspects remain at large, with the potential to harass and kill witnesses.

The President’s reply also dodged the fact that impunity persists even under his watch because of the failure to catch and punish the perpetrators in most of the attacks on journalists. Earlier this month, a tabloid reporter was gunned down in front of her daughter at their home in Bacoor, Cavite. Before she died, she reportedly identified the police chief of Tanza, Cavite as the one responsible for the attack.

The police chief has been relieved, but the case has not been solved, like most of the other murders targeting journalists. The failure to solve the killings has made the Philippines rank behind only Iraq and Somalia in the latest international impunity index. The Philippines is considered by media groups as one of the deadliest countries for journalists, and three years of the daang matuwid administration has failed to erase the tag. This has not escaped the foreign news media. That question fielded by President Aquino should provide impetus for his administration to do more to end the impunity.