ILOILO CITY, Philippines-Media organizations in the Visayas on Wednesday deplored President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s statement of that numerous murdered Filipino journalists were killed because they were corrupt.
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Duterte won as president with 16,601,997 votes in the official count, over six million more than the votes of his closest rivel, the Liberal Party candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
The foul-mouthed politician has launched a series of post-election tirades against criminals and repeated his vows to kill them – particularly drug traffickers, rapists and murderers.
In a television interview after the proclamation, Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte was busy trying to complete the members of his Cabinet.
In its report which was published last January, the International Federation of Journalists ( IFJ ) said that the Philippines is the second most unsafe country for journalists-placing it just after Iraq.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent press freedom organisation, said 77 journalists have died in Philippines since 1992.
“Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something”, Duterte said, according to AFP.
“President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte’s shocking remarks apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists. Not only does it encourage people to take the law into their own hands, it also encourages them to break the law for the wrong reasons and circumstances that can not be justified under any condition, especially in a society ruled by law”, Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, a former journalist, said.
“That can’t be just freedom of speech”. “The Constitution can no longer help you when you humiliate a person”.
Human rights groups have expressed alarm over Duterte, who they suspect instigated extrajudicial killings of many crime suspects by motorcycle-riding gunmen dubbed the Davao death squads. His murder has never been solved.
“The example here is Pala”. I do not want to diminish his memory but he was a rotten son of a b–.
Other world leaders have already congratulated Duterte, who was proclaimed as president-elect on Monday, May 30.
As part of his campaign, Duterte has promised to pursue peace with Muslim rebels, proposing a new federal scheme to grant more political and economic powers to Muslim-dominated areas in the south.
“We deplore the proposition that some journalists may have been assaulted or killed in view of their alleged involvement in media corruption”, Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.
Mr Duterte said: “I am not igniting anything, but we will stick to our original position”.
In the press conference, the incoming president also said that upright journalists were not killed in the country. “Now, now”, he urged them.
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“Certainly, Duterte has no personal knowledge of each and every single case of media killings in many parts of the country”, he said.
