RP journalists’ killers remain unpunished due to witnesses’ fears

BAGUIO CITY , Philippines   – Witnesses to the gruesome murders of Filipino journalists live in fear, according to a report of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released yesterday.

The killers of slain journalists remain unpunished because witnesses are intimidated, the report said.

CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin said the fear of reprisals causes many potential witnesses to look the other way in violence-prone areas of the county, allowing a culture of impunity to thrive.

CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.

In its report, CPJ stressed that “the government’s witness protection program, while valuable, is underfunded and beset by numerous shortcomings.”

Crispin traveled to General Santos City and Manila in July this year to do research for the report entitled “Under Oath, Under Threat.”

The CPJ report highlighted the 2008 murder of radio broadcaster Denis Cuesta, who was shot while walking with colleague Robert Flores along a main road in General Santos City.

Flores has identified a senior police official as one of the assassins despite threats against him and his family.

For their security, Flores and his family moved to a safehouse with little money and limited freedom as the snail-paced case slowly proceeds to trial, according to the CPJ.

“The circumstances surrounding Cuesta’s murder conform to a disturbing pattern in this country: a journalist is shot and killed; local police manipulate the evidence to protect influential people accused in the crime; potential witnesses are intimidated, bought off or killed so that they never appear in court; the defense employs stalling tactics to break the will of remaining witnesses; the case goes unsolved and the culture of impunity is reinforced.”

Flores, 49, reportedly told the CPJ that he laments their current situation.

“I have sacrificed my family, my job, everything for justice. When the case is over, we will have to start a new life somewhere else,” Flores said.

Crispin said that at least 24 cases of journalist murders have gone unsolved in the Philippines over the last decade.

In CPJ’s 2009 Impunity Index, the Philippines ranked sixth.

CPJ also reported that it has documented numerous instances in which witnesses have been threatened, assaulted, or bribed.

One of the most shocking cases was the 2002 murder of radio journalist Edgar Damalerio wherein two witnesses were killed before they could testify, while a third one survived an assassination attempt. –Artemio Dumlao and Dino Balabo (The Philippine Star)