Another journalist has been killed, the fourth to have been murdered in less than two weeks and the sixth this year.

Fernando Consignado, a "volunteer reporter" or correspondent of Radio Veritas based in Nagcarlan, Laguna, south of Manila, was found dead inside his house on Thursday. Police theorized he might have been killed the day before. Police said Consignado was shot in the head.

Dennis Geron, coordinator and advisor of Radio Veritas’s pool of volunteer reporters, told the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) that Consignado was a vegetable farmer who also reported on news in his community every now and then. “I trained and supervised him for five years and I had no problem with his reporting,” Geron said.

Police are still investigating the motive for the murder but Geron said that two years ago, Consignado exposed anomalies in projects in his community in Nagcarlan. His expose resulted in threats to his life, Geron said. A barangay official, for example, challenged Consignado to a knife fight as a result of Consignado’s report.

Police are also looking into the possibility that Consignado’s death may have something to do with a land dispute with some of his relatives.

Dave Sta. Ana, newsroom supervisor at the Radio Veritas, said Consignado’s reports shortly before his death had not been critical of anybody.

“His death pains me,” Geron said. He added: “I think it’s about time that something should be done about these killings.”

Consignado, 50, was the fourth journalists killed in less than two weeks. On July 31, Rogelio “Roger” Mariano of DZIJ-Aksyon Radio in Laoag was shot dead. A few days later, on Aug. 5, Arnnel Manalo, a reporter of DZRH and the Manila tabloid Bulgar in Bauan, Batangas, was also killed.

Then on Aug. 8, Jonathan Abayon, a reporter of RGMA Superadyo in General Santos City, was shot by William Bael, the bodyguard of boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. Abayon died the next day.

On June 17, Eliseo Binoya of Radyo Natin in General Santos City was shot and killed. On Feb. 11, Ruel Endrinal of DZRC in Legazpi City, was also shot dead.

If this trend continues, 2004 could become the bloodiest year ever for Filipino journalists. Last year, seven journalists were murdered, matching the record of Colombia, and thus becoming one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist.

News of Consignado’s death came less than two hours after the NUJP concluded a roundtable discussion at the University of the Philippines on how to deal with the series of killings that the group says threatens Philippine democracy.

Among those agreed by the more than 30 journalists who attended was the proposal to ask Congress and the Senate to launch an investigation into the failure of the police and the judiciary to solve any of the 54 cases of journalist murders since 1986. Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, himself a former newsman, will initiate the move in Congress, in coordination with Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla, a former journalist who chairs the House committee on public information.

Earlier this month, Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Jamby Madrigal filed a resolution in the Senate seeking an inquiry into the murders.

“These killings have got to stop,” said Carlos H. Conde, NUJP secretary-general. “The situation is very, very alarming.”

Inday Espina-Varona, NUJP chair, said the government “likes to boast of a freewheeling democracy. A succession of Malacañang occupants have claimed that media in this country is, and has always been, an ally in the preservation of democracy. And yet, as events of 2003 and the past months show, the Philippine Press is under siege by a society that increasingly shoots or arrests its messengers.”

As the Committee for the Protection of Journalists notes, she said, “we are witnessing ‘the routine assassination of journalists.’ It would not an exaggeration to claim we are in a state of war.

Meanwhile, Varona said the assaults on media do not stop at killings. “There have been many arrests of journalists in the past few years. Libel cases are being filed in record numbers. Soldiers have surrounded journalists during fact-finding missions, and military officers remain wont to accuse reporters of involvement in rebellion. Troops and local government units have also closed down several radio stations. There have been government gag orders and threats to file criminal suits against media entities that do not toe the official line. We have experienced public harangues, news blackouts, outright disinformation, denial of access to information, prior restraint on coverage – as well as self-censorship.”

All these do violence to journalists and Philippine society in general, she said. “When media is oppressed, when it is literally under fire, it is society itself that is besieged.”

Reference:

Inday Espina-Varona (09167512522)
Carlos H. Conde (09189425492)
Jose Torres Jr. (09209010013)