(CMFR/IFEX) – A number of local media practitioners have expressed fear for their lives after receiving death threats. According to a report by “The Philippine Star” newspaper, the threats are reportedly in connection with the journalists’ exposés of illegal drug activities in some provinces of Cagayan Valley, northern Philippines. Lito Salatan, president of the Isabela […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – A number of local media practitioners have expressed fear for their lives after receiving death threats. According to a report by “The Philippine Star” newspaper, the threats are reportedly in connection with the journalists’ exposés of illegal drug activities in some provinces of Cagayan Valley, northern Philippines.
Lito Salatan, president of the Isabela province press club and the regional police press corps, expressed alarm over the death threats, which have mostly been relayed via text messages to journalists known for their hard-hitting commentaries and exposés on illegal drug activities in the region.
Salatan claimed to have received such messages himself in the past weeks. He was reportedly warned to “go slow” on his commentaries on the proliferation of illegal drugs and to refrain from exposing those suspected to be behind the illegal drug trade.
One of the text messages received by the journalists warned, “Stop writing about and exposing our operations here in Isabela, especially here in Santiago City, if you want to live longer.”
According to Jun Fuentes, a local correspondent for the Manila-based tabloid “Remate”, the threatening messages may have originated from an individual or group involved in drug trafficking.
Santiago City Police Chief Reynaldo Sinaon said police informants have confirmed the existence of a “hit list” compiled by a suspected powerful drug supplier. Santiago City is the capital of Isabela province.
Cagayan Valley police director Alfredo de Vera gave assurances that he would instruct all police units in the region to investigate the death threats.
Aside from Salatan and Fuentes, six other print and broadcast journalists have received direct death threats.
De Vera and Santiago City Mayor Amelita Sison-Navarro said they would facilitate the issuance of firearms and the processing of their gun licenses for journalists whose lives are in danger. De Vera said he would even assign security escorts to the journalists if the problem “really warrants” such a move.
In a separate incident, two journalists based in Laguna City, about 70 km south of Manila, also received death threats for writing about corruption in their community. Dodie Banzuela and Iring Maranan, associate publisher and columnist-reporter, respectively, of the San Pablo City weekly “Deretso Balita” (“Straight News”), received the threats through text messages. The most recent message, received on 20 February, said, “F@#$ you! If you don’t stop writing everything, bullets are going to stop you!” The journalists had implicated a local high-ranking city official in corruption (see IFEX alert of 3 March 2005).
Violence and threats continue to plague the media and, often, the witnesses in several journalists’ murder cases in the country.
In February, Edgar Amoro, a key witness in the high profile murder case of Pagadian City journalist Edgar Damalerio, was gunned down by armed men in an apparent attempt to thwart the investigation.
On 26 February, representatives of the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program (WPP) and the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists Inc. went to Pagadian City to take away the last remaining witness in the case, Edgar Ongue, and the two widows, Gemma Damalerio and Erlinda Amoro, in response to continued death threats against all three. The move was also aimed at avoiding another setback for the country’s justice system, which is being hampered by a vicious cycle of violence and impunity.
