There’s a presidential task force to promote the security of media workers. Yet in the nearly four years since President Marcos took office, eight media workers, most of them radio broadcasters, have been murdered. A ninth victim, radio commentator Federico Gempesaw, was shot outside his home in Cagayan de Oro on the eve of the President’s inaugural in June 2022.
While the murders are not suspected to be part of a state-sponsored systematic execution of journalists, the capture, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators have been slow.
These include the most celebrated of the cases – the murder of radio broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa near his home in Las Piñas – with the corrections chief at the time, Gerald Bantag, indicted as the mastermind. The hired gun who pulled the trigger has been convicted and is in prison, but Bantag remains at large.
The latest victim is Julito Diamante Calo, host of the program “Waswasanay sa Quinto Distrito” on DNN News FM in the Negros Occidental city of Himamaylan. Calo was reportedly tending to his garden at home in Robles, La Castellana town on March 20 when a white sport utility vehicle pulled up. One of the passengers in the SUV shot Calo in the head, killing him.
Police are still trying to determine the motive for the murder of Calo, who was also a job order employee of the local government. The Presidential Task Force on Media Security condemned the killing, describing it as a “significant threat to press freedom.”
Beyond condemnation, what media workers and the victims’ relatives want is the solution of journalist killings. Whether or not the attacks are work-related, every unsolved murder fuels impunity and the certainty of more attacks. This is true for all crimes. And the more sensational the unsolved crime, the greater the impunity.
Ending that impunity – by capturing, prosecuting and putting murderers behind bars – is the best protection that the state can give to journalists.