The Philippines Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility today released a very useful update on a number of impunity cases currently pending in the Philippines. All involve unresolved killings of journalists; and an interesting feature is that all have been or are being tried in Cebu, a venue where the defendants have less (political and other) influence.
The trial of the suspected murderers of Rolando Ureta, a journalist who was killed on 3 January 2001 in Kalibo, Aklan, started on May 9 in Cebu City. The transfer of venue had been requested by the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, citing the influence of the accused in Aklan, and granted by the Supreme Court on 18 March 2008, alongside a petition for change of venue of the trial of the murderers of Herson Hinolan, a journalist who was killed in Aklan in 2004.
Two other successful prosecutions of killed journalists have recently taken place in Cebu: the 2005 prosecution of the killers of Edgar Damalerio, which resulted in a life sentence for gunman and former police officer Guillermo Wapile; and the 2006 prosecutions of the killers of Marlene Esperat, which resulted in life sentences for the hitman, a look-out and a co-conspirator. The effort to secure the arrest of those who ordered the Esperat killing is still on-going.
More updates on the Ureta case can be found here; info on the Damalerio case here; on the Esperat case here; and on the Hinolan case here.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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