Barely a month after Reporters Without Border lowered RP’s freedom index from 128th to 142nd this year, another journalist, has been reportedly slained in Gingoong City, Misamis Oriental. Radio Natin commentator Aristeo Padrigao, a hard-hitting critic of Mayor Ruthy Guingona, died of gunshot wound inflicted by a motorcycle-riding assailant according the provincial police chief Catalino Rodriguez.
“The Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said the Philippines has become the ‘most dangerous place for journalists next to Iraq and the most murderous place in the world for journalists.’ “—GMANewsTV (11/17/08, Jacinto, A)
Mostly unresolved, more than 50 Filipino journalists have been killed since 2001 and greater than 800 civilians have died or went missing under suspicious circumstances. The public is angered and frustrated. The 7th journalist to die in 2008, Padrigao casts strong doubts on Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo’s capacity to stave off the deteriorating human rights record of the Philippines. =0=
RELATED BLOGS: “RP’s 2008 Press Freedom Rank: 142nd out of 173 nations,” Posted by mesiamd at 10/26/2008; “Deteriorating Human Rights Record: another journalist shot dead in Camarines Sur,” posted by mesiamd at 08/16/08.)
UPDATE:“The horrific pattern of antagonism and violence against journalists in the Philippines is a disgrace and must end,” said the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ Asia-Pacific) said in a reaction to the death of Aristeo Padrigao, a staunched critic of illegal logging in Mindanao. Calling for justice, IfJ, bewails the helplessness of RP to stop the killings which have claimed the lives of 61 journalists since 2001 according to the Nuational Union of Jounrnalists in the Philippines NUJP).Inquirer (11/18/08, Kwok, A)
Ibalon 