BY ELLEN TORDESILLAS: WHISTLEBLOWERS WELCOME LACSON RETURN
MANILA, MARCH 29, 2011 (MALAYA) Ellen Tordesillas - ('Murdering journalists is not new in this country but we can never be jaded about it. Each time a journalist is killed, press freedom is undermined.')
NOT surprisingly, Sandra Cam, president of the Whistleblowers Association, is so happy that Sen. Ping Lacson is back.
Lacson arrived in Cebu from Hong Kong last Saturday. He proceeded to Manila. His media officer, Gerry de Belen, said the senator, who left the country 14 months ago to evade the warrant of arrest issued against him in connection with the murders of public relations practitioner Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, will hold a presscon today at the Senate.
Cam said with the return of Lacson, members of their organization who will be called to the witness stand during the impeachment trial, feel more secure. She added that Lacson is the only one who is consistent with his help for the whistleblowers. (A whistleblower is one who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it) who testified in congressional investigation at great risk to their person and family.)
Even before the Court of Appeals came out with its final decision last March 18 saying that its earlier ruling nullifying the indictment of Regional Trial Court of Manila in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case automatically lifted the warrant of arrest issued against Lacson, the Whistleblowers Association had issued a statement giving him support warning the public that those who are protecting Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez are "hell-bent" in preventing Lacson from coming back.
One can sense disappointment and hurt in Whistleblowers Association's statement. While they praised Lacson for "defending patriotic truth as against all odds while Arroyo was at the peak of power her power", they couldn't resist taking a swipe at those who "all of a sudden became courageous only when the icon of corruption was no longer president."
Aside from Cam, signatories of the statement included Jose Barredo, Jr. one of the vital witnesses in the P728 million fertilizer scam, considered one of the strongest cases of the six items in the Articles of Impeachment.
Another signatory to the statement of support for Lacson was Dante Madriaga, one of the witnesses in the $329 million NBN/ZTE deal.
Other signatories were retired Master Sgt Cesar Doble and Capt. Marlon Mendoza, witnesses in the Senate investigation of the "Hello Garci" scandal, Noel Baviera, witness in investigation on banks and Atty. Melchor Magdamo, the whistleblower in the ballot secrecy folders anomaly.
It's a pity that the "Hello Garci" scandal is not included in this impeachment trial. Doble and Mendoza would have been more than glad to refresh the minds of the public of Gloria Arroyo's grand theft of the will of the Filipino people in the 2004 elections.
But the "Hello Garci" scandal, just like the controversial plea bargain agreement with retired military comptroller Carlos Garcia , would be very much in the consciousness of the public and the senators when they decide on the fate of Gutierrez.
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Murdering journalists is not new in this country but we can never be jaded about it. Each time a journalist is killed, press freedom is undermined.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) issued this statement on the killing Marline Flores-Sumera, anchor of dzME-Radyo Uno, who was murdered as she left her home in Malabon City for work Thursday morning.
"We demand that authorities solve the crime and arrest not only those who pulled the trigger but, more importantly, the brains behind this latest murder of a Filipino journalist, the 144th since 1986.
"Sumera was killed the same day Marlene Esperat was gunned down as she sat down to dinner with her family in 2005 and is the sixth woman journalist - Leah Dalmacio, Gina Dela Cruz, Maritess Cablitas and Neneng Montano died in the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre - murdered in the country since 1986. Her murder was carried out with the same brazenness, the gunman walking up to her and putting a bullet through her nape as she was waiting for a jeepney ride, then picking up the spent shell and casually walking away.
"This is such clear proof of the culture of impunity that government's continued failure – should we say unwillingness? – to solve media killings and all other forms of extrajudicial executions in this country has nurtured, that murderers can boldly carry out their diabolic work in the light of day and walk away, confident that authorities cannot, or will not, touch them.
"We are therefore appalled that no less than President Benigno Aquino III and Director Nicanor Bartolome of the National Capital Region Police Office should immediately suggest that Sumera's murder was not job-related based on the results of an 'initial investigation.'
"Aquino and Bartolome ought to be more prudent and know that such a statement should be made only after a thorough probe and after exhausting all possible angles.
"Her family and co-workers believe the killing of Sumera, co-anchor of the public service program Arangkada Kinse Trenta, is connected to the dispute between two claimant-groups, one of which she led, over a four-hectare estate up for distribution by the National Housing Authority that she and fellow host, dzME chief reporter Ed Sarto, had been tackling on the program.
"Her taking on the land dispute on behalf of her fellow claimants was clearly part of the public service she rendered as a broadcast journalist.
"Together with her bereaved kin, colleagues and listeners, the NUJP demands justice for Len Sumera's death and that government once and for all end the culture of impunity that continues to mock its claims of being a democracy through its failure to solve the continued murders of those who constitute one of that supposed democracy's cornerstones, the independent media."
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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