ANOTHER journalist succumbed to assassins’ bullets two days before the world-wide commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity on Monday.
Jose Bernardo, correspondent of radio station DWIZ and columnist of the tabloid Bandera Pilipino, who was gunned down in front of a restaurant in Barangay Kaligayahan, Quezon City Saturday night, October 31.
A restaurant staff was also wounded by a stray bullet in the attack.
A CCTV footage captured the fatal shooting and shows Bernardo being shot by a lone gunman at about 9 pm, Saturday.
The gunman then fled to a waiting motorcycle driven by another man and fled the scene. Bernardo sustained two gunshot wounds in the head and died on the spot.
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), a media organization that tracks media killings, said Bernardo is the 29th journalist killed under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III and the 150th since 1986 when democracy was supposedly restored in the country.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the killings, noting that the latest murder comes at the heels of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement urging governments, among them the Philippines, to “do more” to combat the trend of impunity on violence against journalists.
“The brazen manner in which Bernardo, the 30th journalist slain during the watch of President Benigno Aquino III, was gunned down outside a restaurant in Quezon City, underscores the impunity with which media killings and other extrajudicial murders continue to be committed because of government apathy towards human rights and its primary duty, to protect the lives of its citizens,” the NUJP said.
“Under this administration, a large part of the blame should fall on Aquino, who has displayed a penchant for blaming practically everything wrong with his governance, or lack thereof, on the media, which can only embolden those who would impose the ultimate censorship – death – coupled with an utterly uncaring attitude towards the murders of journalists and human rights violations in general,” the NUJP added.
In like manner, Ban Ki-moon noted that journalist killings and the lack of punishment for the killers and masterminds “deepens fears among journalists and enables Governments to get away with censorship.”
He further said that only seven percent of total cases were resolved and less than one in every 10 are fully investigated.
“We must do more to combat this trend and make sure that journalists can report freely. Journalists should not have to engage in self-censorship because they fear for their life,” Ban Ki-moon urged.
November 2 was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2013 as International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, which is also observed as All Souls Day in the Philippines. (With reports from JB R. Deveza)