No mastermind in media killings convicted since 2001, police official admits

No mastermind in incidents of media killings in the country has been convicted for the past 13 years, the head of the police task force in charge of investigating these crimes admitted Tuesday.

During a Senate hearing, Chief Superintendent Henry Libay, head of the Philippine National Police (PNP)'s Task Force USIG, said out of the 115 cases of media killings reported to authorities since 2011, only 48 are considered "work-related."

Six of these cases have achieved convictions in court, Libay added.

Benny Antiporda, Confederation of ASEAN Journalists president, asked Libay about the individuals convicted in cases of media killings. "For the conviction, does this mean only the gunman or the mastermind? What we really care about here is the real culprit, which is the mastermind," he said.

To this, Libay replied, "Unfortunately po, wala po tayong conviction ng masterminds."

He added that most of these alleged masterminds—such as the Reyes brothers, who are being implicated in the the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega in January 2011—are still at large.

During the visit of US President Barack Obama in Manila last month, Fox News reporter Ed Henry asked President Benigno Aquino III on his administration's record on media killings.

Aquino said his government is already addressing the issue of extrajudicial killings, such as those involving journalists.

'Poor police work'

During Tuesday's Senate hearing, National Press Club (NPC) president Joel Sy Egco cited "poor police work" as one of the reasons why some incidents of media killings remain unsolved.

"Even if you have filed a case already, if you have a very bad case foundation or case build-up, eventually, the case will be dismissed," Egco said.

He added that slow police investigations enable influential personalities involved in media killings to meddle with the case.

"Nagkakaroon po ng time, kung influential po ang taong involved, to influence the investigation at the local level. Maaring may mayors involved, policemen and some government officials, or even private individuals na affluent. Nagkakaroon pa sila ng time to throw their weight around," he said.

To help prevent media killings, Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, suggested that the PNP set up an anonymous hotline for journalists to report threats to their lives.

"If we can have like an internal affairs office where the media can call, with a civilian also monitoring, any threat on the media will be taken seriously," Poe said.

3rd deadliest country for journalists

President Aquino earlier said that out of the 62 suspected cases reported to the inter-agency committee on extralegal killings, only 10 met the criteria of what constitutes an extrajudicial killing, and only one happened under his watch.

According to the group Human Rights Watch, however, 26 journalists have been killed so far under Aquino's presidency.
 
A recent report by international watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has also identified the Philippines as the third deadliest country for journalists in the world. —KBK, GMA News