Kaban ni D_BystandeR: PADAYON ANG PAGPUO SA MGA PERYODISTA SA NASOD???

The initial reaction of a police official, ARMM police director Chief Supt. Noel delos Reyes, to a killing of a journalist in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi province, was to ask if it is work related, the same line of argument Pres. Aquino tried to use to parry the question from Fox News Ed Henry at the time when US Pres. Obama was here in our country on a state visit, asking him his reaction to the number of journalists killed under his administration. Instead of 26 P-Noy reduced it to only 10. Why, is it now the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), the way the police reacts to assassinated journalist instead of working immediately to solve the crime by running after the suspects, their first reaction is to ask if it is work-related? Kaya mabagal silang kumilos dahil alamin pa nila kung work-related ba o hindi?

Footnote: The above-comment came out in connection with a Philstar news headline, "Broadcaster killed in Tawi-Tawi." Richard Najid, manager of FM station Power Mix dxNN in Bongao, died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. Najid, 35, was riding his motorcycle coming from a basketball game when three unidentified men opened fire in Barangay Tubig Boh. While Najid's work at dxNN was that of a manager and senior disc jockey, he also reported on current events in the province.

Najid was the second broadcast journalist killed in Bongao in seven years. In 2006, Vicente Sumalpong, a broadcast staff of a Radyo ng Bayan outfit in Bongao, was killed. The case remains unsolved. The National Union of Journalist in the Philippines (NUJP) said Najid was 26th journalist killed under the Aquino administration. NUJP president Rowena Paraan said 80 percent of journalist killings involved local police who act as protectors of local politicians. Paraan called for a system to ensure fair investigation of journalist killings. She said the number of journalists killed during the Aquino administration surpassed the number of killed journalists in the previous administration. Paraan said the national police are not fully equipped in handling journalist killings. She added that the national police are suffering from a credibility problem. "Impunity prevails when the credibility of the national police and the officers in the communities are highly questionable," she said. National Press Club president Joel Sy Egco also expressed dismay over the killing.

He said the murder of Najid is another "humiliating sequel to President Aquino's pathetic gaffe" when he addressed the query of a foreign correspondent over the issue of killings of journalists. "Najid's murder came barely a week after Aquino blabbered helplessly when asked to explain why media killings persist under his administration," Egco said. "This is a clear indication of lack of real concern or plain disregard for the deadly plight of Filipino journalists. He couldn't even get his facts straight," he added.