The Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte may seek China’s help in funding nationwide railway projects.
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Romel Regalado Bagares, executive director of the Center for International Law, said Duterte’s comments showed “a cynical attitude towards what is a serious concern to the international community” and could perpetuate impunity for the killers.
It is considered still one of the most hostile environments in the world for journalists, however, with 176 journalists killed since Marcos.
Duterte during a press conference said killed journalists usually have been on the grounds of their being allegedly corrupt.
A Cebu-based organization composed of both media and non-media professionals was shocked by the statement of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte that corrupt journalists deserved to be killed.
“That can’t be just freedom of speech”.
In a nation that has seen about 175 journalists killed since 1986, media groups denounced President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for suggesting that journalists were being killed because they were corrupt. He said only crime suspects who put up a resistance would be killed.
The controversial new leader made the shocking remarks while responding to a question at a press conference about how his administration would protect freedom of expression and journalism.
Duterte’s statements did not sit well with the country’s media groups led by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) which warned these would encourage the killing of more media men in the country.
“Most of the time, you did something wrong”, Duterte said in Filipino.
The Philippines has been ranked as one of the world’s most risky places for journalists by press freedom groups, including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which condemned Duterte’s comments.
“I said, ‘I’ll put you there on one condition, that if you have an agent who is messing around with drugs and it comes to a fight, I want you to kill him personally, ‘” Duterte said, adding he promised the official he would get the largest bounty if he does that.
The case was initiated by the Philippines in 2014 to settle the longstanding territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Duterte’s comments were in reaction to the death of a journalist in Manilla last week. “There is corruption in the media”.
The CMFR said the killing of journalists is “not something to be made light of”.
Duterte addressed reporters on Tuesday in the southern city of Davao, where his loud approval of hundreds of execution-style killings of drug users and criminals over almost two decades helped propel him to the highest office.
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“What he was saying [on Tuesday night] is when a journalist is killed, it doesn’t mean that he was killed as a journalist. Moreover, (the) alleged corruption by members of the press does not make them legitimate targets of assassination”, he said.
