MANILA, Aug 25 (IPS) – Testing the limits of press freedom is a perilous venture in the Philippines. Good journalists in the country run the risk of either being maimed for life or killed for reporting without fear or favour.

Around three Filipino journalists on the average are killed each year. But recently, the number of journalists slain has increased dramatically.

Six journalists have so far been killed this year – four of them in the last fortnight. Fifty-five journalists have lost their lives since 1986 and not one of these cases has been solved.

The latest journalist killed was Fernando Consignado, a reporter with the Catholic station ‘Radio Veritas’. He was attacked and killed inside his house. News reports said he reported on anomalies in government projects in his town.

Carlos Conde, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) told IPS that the killings of journalists in the country, this year, surpassed any nation in the world except Iraq.

‘Only Iraq, a war-torn nation, has had more killings of journalists this year (than the Philippines),’ he said.

This week the NUJP denounced the continuing threats on the lives of journalists and launched a hot line for those harassed by goons with guns.

Aquiles Zonio, correspondent of the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’ in General Santos City, was the most recent recipient of a death threat through his mobile phone.

Zonio received a text message shortly before noon last Saturday, warning him he would be ‘the next to fall’. The note ended with ‘adios’ (goodbye).

‘The threat on Zonio’s life is particularly disturbing in the wake of the murder of his colleague, reporter Jonathan Abayon, the second journalist murdered in General Santos City within the year. The suspect is still at large,’ the NUJP said in a statement

The NUJP reported other threats faced by journalists. In Batangas, it said, colleagues of slain reporter Arnnel Manalo have been under threat since he was murdered on Aug. 5. They had reported on the same story that the police theorised had caused Manalo’s death.

On Aug. 16, two Luzon journalists approached the NUJP to complain about the threats they had been receiving because of the subjects they had written about. The NUJP is looking into these complaints.

In advising its members on dealing with threats, the NUJP said: ‘Do not ignore it. Record the threat, when it happened, what exactly was said, and how it was relayed.’

‘If the threat was made through a phone call, take note of the time, the date, the phone number, any sound in the background, and any of the caller’s voice characteristics. If through text, do not delete the threat message,’ added the union.

But the attacks have not stopped despite the matter receiving national attention.

The latest incident was on Aug 13 when an unidentified gunman ambushed radio commentator Edward Balida in the public market in Valencia City, Bukidnon Province in the south.

Balida, a broadcaster for the ‘Radio Mindanao Network’ survived a gunshot wound.

He told the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility that the shooting was an assassination attempt in response to his commentary against drug trafficking.

Balida has been a vocal supporter of the government’s anti- drug crusade, which may have angered local drug gangs.

Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, head of the Task Force Newsman that was newly formed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) to investigate the journalist killings, said the suspects had different motives, most of which were personal.

‘It just so happened that some of them came closely one after the other,’ he told reporters, without elaborating any further.

Earlier, the PNP said it would take at least six months to determine if a journalist was facing profession-related risk.

Even if a threat has been detected the PNP, which is having difficulty solving the recent string of killings of journalists, admitted it could not provide adequate protection to those deemed to be ‘potential targets.’

The PNP chief, Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., said the best protection they could provide for journalists facing serious threats is ‘static security.’

‘If he (the journalist) has the means, then he could hire his own security, but we are not taking away our responsibility in protecting the people. That’s our job,’ Ebdane told the ‘Manila Times.’

Some officers of the PNP have offered to arm journalists, especially those in the provinces, by issuing them with special licenses to carry guns. Provincial journalists, unlike their counterparts in the national media, are more prone to danger because of their proximity to news sources.

But some journalists, however, found it unnecessary to arm themselves.

‘I don’t even know how to fire a handgun,’ a political reporter told IPS.

‘I’m comfortable with the gadgets of the trade — my notebook, my recorder and my pen,’ he said.

He shrugs off reports that journalists are in peril and echoes a sentiment of many Filipino journalists who look at death, injury or threats as part of the job and an inherent factor of working in a democracy.

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