[Kabar-indonesia] AT: Filipino Journalists Bite the Bullet [+Impeachment Revived]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Philippine opposition revives impeachment bid against Arroyo

Asia Times
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Filipino Journalists Bite the Bullet

By Donald Kirk 

MANILA - The biting tongues of Filipino broadcast commentators deliver some 
of 
the unkindest cuts for corrupt politicos, local warlords, police officials 
and soldiers. Nearly everyone in the Philippines listens to talk radio, and 
broadcast journalists 
are dying for speaking their minds. 

The immense popularity of on-air yakking explains why broadcast criticism of 
foul deeds is one of the country's more dangerous jobs - riskier, on a per 
capita basis, than service as a left-wing activist or even as a guerrilla for the 
communists' New People's Army or militant Muslim groups. No question, the 
Philippines is far and away the most perilous place to be a journalist in Asia, 
if not the world. 

Unlike the hundreds of left-leaning activists who've been wiped out  in the 
past few years, most of the slain journalists are known more for their 
political connections than for their leftist proclivities. The common denominator, 
though, remains the 
same - police officials, hiding behind their badges, are most often 
responsible for 
the killings, rights groups contend. 

"The thing behind the killing is the state security forces," said Carlos 
Conde, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists. "With the 
journalists, 
it's local warlords, police officers going after critical journalists." 

And, according to him, the government doesn't seem to care. 

Conde's advocacy group notes that 79 journalists have been killed since the 
"people power" revolution of 1986 that ousted Ferdinand Marcos after 21 years 
in power. At least 42 journalists, mostly radio broadcasters, have been 
murdered since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seized power five years ago. 

Spotty rights record

Arroyo has come under sharp domestic and international criticism for 
contributing 
to a lawless environment in which armed perpetrators operate as though they 
have 
a license to kill, either in pursuit of her government's counter-terrorism 
policies or simply in enforcing law and order. The unmitigated killing spree has 
badly eroded Arroyo's democratic credentials and raises hard questions about 
her government's commitment to protecting even basic civil liberties. 

"Now they say they've created a task force, but they're not taking charges 
seriously," said Wilnor Papa, deputy director of the Manila office of Amnesty 
International. 

In a scathing report condemning scores of killings of armed and unarmed 
leftists, often allegedly by assailants linked to armed forces, Amnesty 
International cites 
a "lack of confidence in the criminal-justice system" contributing to the 
slaughter 
that has spiraled to include journalists as targets. 

Local vigilantes, "allegedly linked to municipal authorities and the 
Philippine 
National Police, have gone after suspected criminals, including alleged petty 
thieves and street children", according to the report. It is in that 
atmosphere 
that "journalists were also at risk of armed attacks", the report states. 

Among the 42 cases of journalists being killed since Arroyo came to power, 
only one police officer has been convicted and sentenced. The killer got a life 
term last November for murdering radio commentator Edgar Damalerio. Global 
media freedom groups such as the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 
hailed that conviction and the government's stated commitment to pursue the 
many remaining unsolved cases. 

But "as time passes, the successful prosecution in the Damalerio case looks 
like an anomaly - not the first step in a vigorous government campaign to bring 
to justice the killers of journalists", CPJ executive director Anne Cooper 
said. For all the international ignominy, the killers almost always get away 
with murder, and matters are only getting worse. 

On May 6, radio commentator Paul Manaog was shot three times while walking 
with his wife in the central city of Naga. Left for dead, he remained in 
critical condition while authorities made their usual investigation, picking up spent 
cartridges and poking around. The Philippine Center for Media Freedom and 
Responsibility, another advocacy group, surmised that Manaog was targeted for 
critical commentaries about local politicos, possible rivals of the family that 
owns the station where he worked. 

Two weeks later, gunmen on motorcycles killed Fernando Batul, a commentator 
for a radio station in Puerto Princesa on Palawan Island in the southern 
Philippines, with six shots as he was driving to work. That killing, according to 
CPJ, came one week after two hand-grenades and a letter were left at Batul's 
home threatening harm to his family if he continued with critical broadcasts. 
Early last week, George and Mazel Vigo, both radio broadcast journalists, were 
gunned down by unidentified assailants on the southern island of Mindanao. 

The authorities round up the usual suspects - ordering investigations, 
issuing denials and sometimes even offering rewards. The net effect, media-freedom 
groups contend, is one vast top-down cover-up. On May 5, Philippine National 
Police Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao said many murders of journalists 
had been solved, while also denying what CPJ's Cooper refers to as a "culture of 
impunity". 

Local journalists say the reporting risk has risen ever since Justice 
Secretary Raul Gonzalez suggested that a number of journalist victims were actually 
shot dead while drinking or possibly fighting over women. He said the 
accusations against the government were often exaggerated by leftists - a category in 
which he lumped Amnesty International. 

Those scribes who were still worried, Gonzalez advised, might do well to go 
ahead and carry weapons - a suggestion that raised the specter of target 
practice becoming a part of journalist training programs. In any case, the National 
Union of Journalists said many killed journalists were already armed but were 
outgunned. 

Caught in the crossfire

Filipino journalists are often secondary victims in broader conflicts, 
pitching the government against armed leftist or radical Muslim groups. Others, it 
is believed, have been gunned down in local political turf wars where the 
police side with and carry out orders made by offended politicians and local 
heavies. 

For example, in the government's pursuit of the leaders of the leftist Bayan 
Muna organization led by longtime former Communist Party member Satur Ocampo, 
the government has marshaled a panoply of agencies into joint action. 

"It's a strategic holistic approach, the use of government agencies with 
military tactics," said Girlie Patilla, leader of the Ecumenical Movement for 
Justice and Peace. "It's not just the killing, but neutralization of critics in 
various provinces." 

She specifically cites the military-led "Operation Plan Freedom Watch", a 
counter-insurgency program that often involves not just the armed forces, but the 
departments of social welfare, health and non-governmental organizations. 

The controversial approach, including much of the nomenclature, appears to 
have been at least partly inspired by the United States, which is now pouring 
more than US$100 million a year into the Philippines' military establishment for 
training and weapons, mainly to combat terrorism. Since the attacks of 
September 11, 2001, Washington has identified the Philippines' ongoing battle 
against Muslim insurgent groups as a critical regional front in its "global war on 
terrorism". 

Conde, of the National Union of Journalists, believes that at most "one or 
two suspected leftists" were among the journalists who have been killed in the 
past five years. 

"Mostly it's local politics, crime syndicates," he said. "Mostly it's 
connected with their work, for broadcasts, for stories on air attacking politicians 
and drug lords." 

The bigger question is whether the killings and the lawless environment will 
eventually provide a pretext for Arroyo to declare an extended period of 
martial law, the tool that the late dictator Marcos used to consolidate and cling 
to power. Vergil Santos, chairman of the Center for Media Freedom and 
Responsibility, is convinced that is the government's motive. 

"This is a desperate administration," he said. "It wants to perpetuate its 
power. I have no doubt [it is] behind the killing. The administration is 
encouraging an environment where these things can be done." 

Journalist Donald Kirk is a frequent visitor to the Philippines and is the 
author of the books Philippines in Crisis: US Power Versus Local Revolt and 
Looted: The Philippines after the Bases. 

--------------------------------------------

Agence France-Presse
June 26, 2006

Philippine opposition revives impeachment bid against Arroyo
 
Philippine opposition legislators have filed a new impeachment bid against 
President Gloria Arroyo, reviving their failed attempt to oust her last year.

The impeachment complaint, signed by over 300 opposition figures who had held 
an overnight vigil at the Congress building, cited charges that Arroyo 
cheated to win the May 2004 elections, engaged in corruption and was linked to human 
rights abuses.

It was filed just after the expiry of their last impeachment complaint 
against the president which was lodged in June 2005 and defeated by Arroyo's allies 
in the 236-member House of Representatives in September.

The opposition needs 79 votes to have the complaint sent directly to the 
opposition-dominated Senate where an impeachment trial can be held.

Since the last impeachment bid, several opposition congressmen have switched 
sides and it is unclear if the opposition will secure the necessary votes. So 
far, only about 26 legislators have said they will sign the complaint.

House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles shrugged off the impeachment bid, 
saying "the oppostion does not have the numbers. It is all media hype."

Leftist opposition legislator Rafael Mariano said they would call on the 
constituents of the majority legislators to pressure their representatives to 
support the complaint.

The opposition has only three weeks to gather the 79 votes. If they fail, the 
impeachment bid will only be debated within the House where Arroyo allies can 
easily quash it.

Arroyo, who left the country on Sunday for a visit to the Vatican, Italy and 
Spain, has called on the opposition to set aside their impeachment effort and 
to work with government in dealing with the country's problems.

Since June last year, the opposition has been mounting a concerted effort to 
oust Arroyo on charges that she cheated to win the May 2004 elections.

She has denied charges and vowed to finish her term which ends in 2010. 

Despite surveys showing Arroyo's popularity falling to record lows, the 
opposition has failed to gather enough popular support to force her out.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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