Statement

One More Journalist Down, One More Dastardly Act. When Will All These End?

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) strongly denounces the killing of print and broadcast journalist Edgar Damalerio by two motorcycle-riding men in downtown Pagadian City shortly after 7 p.m.. Monday.

One of two men on board the motorcycle shot him at pointblank range at the back, the lone bullet piercing his heart.

Damalerio was on his way home after attending a press conference called by the Zamboanga del Sur Electric Rural Cooperative (ZAMSURECO).

The unlucky 34-yer old Damalerio had gone ahead saying his wife had called and reported the presence of two suspicious-looking men near their house.

A hard-hitting anchorman of DXKP-RPN, Damalerio was also the Pagadian correspondent of the Mindanao Gold Star Daily. He is survived by his wife and one-year old son.

The incident once more reinforces the assessment of the Worldwide Press Freedom movement that Mindanao Journalists are among the most endangered of their kind at present.

Indeed, the NUJP believes that the present situation insofar as the safety of Filipino journalists is concerned has become intolerable and unacceptable.

Dastardly elements including warlords, politicians, members of criminal syndicates, rogue military men, and bandits have been among those he had been criticizing in his usual hard-hitting manner.

Unfortunately, since the days of the Aquino government, not one murder case involving a journalist has been solved.

Is it then futile to call upon the government to ensure the protection of journalists when they do their jobs?

This incident and many others before it, and the dangerous times call for all journalists to close ranks, to organize and to decide what they must do to ensure their safety from those who would want to silence them.

Needless, it calls upon the Macapagal-Arroyo government, the local Pagadian City government and the PNP to bring Damalerio's killers and the mastermind to justice.

We are watching. And intently.

(Sgd.) Edgar Cadagat

Chairman

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

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