Safety of journos, media practitioners PBBM’s top priority

MANILA – The safety of all journalists and media practitioners remains a top priority of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) said Thursday.

The PTFoMS issued this statement after the Philippines retained its ranking as the 7th worst country in prosecuting killers of journalists based on the 2022 Global Impunity Index (GII) of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The GII calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population.

“The administration of President Marcos condemns in the strongest terms all cases of threats, harassment, or violence committed against the members of the press, and it is working very hard with all government agencies and stakeholders to address this problem through the PTFoMS,” the task force said in a Facebook post.

According to the PTFoMS, the Philippines’ 7th rank was “expected” because the report covered a 10-year period between Sept. 1, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2022.

However, it also noted that most of the cases that transpired during the 10-year period have been fully investigated, with cases filed in court.

The PTFoMS cited how the suspect in the killing of radio broadcaster Renato Blanco, which was mentioned in CPJ’S report, has been arrested.

“Blanco was stabbed to death on Sept. 18 this year by accused Charles Yanoc Amada. He is currently undergoing trial for murder at the Regional Trial Court of Negros Oriental,” the task force said, adding that it has relayed the information to CPJ Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin.

In the case of Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa, the PTFoMS assured that the government is giving great importance to its investigation in terms of manpower and resources.