Int'l media groups demand justice for slain Cavite-based tabloid reporter

Even as they lamented the continued impunity against media workers in the Philippines, international media groups on Monday demanded justice for a Cavite-based journalist who was gunned down in her house last Sunday.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) scored the brutal killing of Rubylita Garcia, 52, who it noted is the first Filipino journalist to be killed in 2014.

“With impunity for journalist murders now a major priority for the United Nations, the Aquino government is guilty by its own inaction. In the global arena, it can no longer continue to foster this rampant abuse of human rights by its own failures to act,” it said.

It added the "ongoing failure" of the State to protect journalists and bring their killers to justice "perpetuates a cycle of death for media workers in the Philippines where killers can brazenly confront journalists in their homes or on the street with the full knowledge that the policing and justice system is incapable of dealing with journalist murders."

Also, it lamented the Philippines remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

The IFJ noted that when President Benigno Simeon Aquino III assumed office in 2010, he repeatedly claimed that the nation is in "democracy" again.

"This claim becomes more and more tenuous with each media killing,” the IFJ said.

It joined the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in "demanding justice for Robelita Garcia and all Filipino journalists who have been victim to these continuing heinous attacks and whose murders have not been resolved by the wheels of justice expected of democracy." 

Garcia, a reporter for Remate tabloid and a block timer of dwAD radio station in Cavite, died from at least four gunshot wounds after unidentified gunmen barged into her home.

She was shot repeatedly in front of her son and 10-year-old granddaughter.

Earlier, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines called for a thorough investigation to determine the motive of the attack and to identify the killers. 

CPJ pushes justice

Another international group, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, similarly called on Philippine authorities to conduct a thorough and efficient investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

"Garcia's murder reaffirms the Philippines' reputation as one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator.

"Until the perpetrators of Garcia's murder and those of other journalists in the country are brought to justice, the deadly cycle of impunity will inevitably continue," he added.

The CPJ also cited its own research showing the Philippines is the "second deadliest place for journalists."

"At least 74 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, data shows," it said. —Joel Locsin/KG, GMA News