PHL's ranking as 5th worst in impunity index for journalist deaths 'expected' —PTFoMS

The Philippines landing once again on a New York-based watchdog's top five list of countries supposedly enabling impunity in media killings came as no surprise to the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS).

"The CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) report is not surprising and was actually expected," PTFoMS Executive Director Joel Sy Egco said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"In fact, we have been anticipating that because for as long as the massacre case remains in the equation, following the methodology used by CPJ, we shall remain on that list."

Egco explained that since the report covered a 10-year period, the gory Maguindanao massacre which happened on November 2009 was still included in the evaluation.

Thirty-two out of the 58 victims in the said massacre were journalists who accompanied the camp of then-gubernatorial candidate Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu in filing his certificate of candidacy, challenging the political reign of the Ampataun clan in the province.

"With great confidence I could say that either way, once promulgated and the suspects convicted or come the next report period covering August 2010 up to August 2020, the massacre case will be out of the equation. Thus, we are looking at a much better and improved ranking for the Philippines," Egco said.

Further, Egco said that he is discussing with the CPJ some "gray areas" on the methodology it used in the report because cases that were deemed not related to media work had been allegedly included.

He also raised the concern that the government's efforts to track down and file formal charges against the suspects in journalist deaths were not factored in the methodology.

"Impunity, or even complete impunity, means there was no action taken at all in any particular state. And that is definitely not the case in the Philippines,"Egco said.

For his part, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said there is no culture of impunity for crimes against Filipino journalists.

"I don’t think so," Panelo told reporters on Wednesday.

He also said the legal processes in the Philippines are working.

The Philippines ranked 5th among the 13 world’s worst impunity offenders listed in the CPJ's report.

It has the largest number of unsolved killings with 41.

Somalia was the worst country for the fifth year in a row in a ranking based on deaths as a percentage of each country's population. Syria was second and Iraq third on the list.

Egco vowed that the PTFoMS will continue to "act on all cases of violence, threats or murders of media workers."

A year-long, nationwide safety seminar for media workers will also commence on January, according to the task force. —Dona Magsino and Virgil Lopez/KBK/RSJ, GMA News