Vice President Jejomar Binay and Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to protect journalists from work-related violence and to prioritise the resolution of cases of media killings in the country.
The Binay-led United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) also expressed support to the National Press Club’s (NPC) call for candidates seeking national posts to disclose their stand on media killings.
“Violence against the media has no place in a Binay presidency. Press freedom must be respected and prioritised by the government and only a decisive leadership can end this culture of impunity in our country,” Binay said in a statement issued yesterday.
Binay said that his running mate, senator Gregorio Honasan, whom he has earlier said will be his administration’s anti-crime czar, will ensure that members of the media will not have to fear for their lives in the line of duty.
“We fought for so long to take back press freedom. Many journalists laid down their lives for our benefit and that of generations to come. We will not allow any individual or group to twist the truth or kill the voice of the people,” Binay said.
UNA spokesma Mon Ilagan, a former broadcast journalist, said Binay “is serious in addressing the call of the media to end intimidation and killings”.
“We want to assure the NPC and members of media that a president Binay puts a high premium on freedom of the press. He has witnessed how journalists were brutally tortured, harassed and killed during martial law. This will never be the case in a Binay administration. As president, he will encourage freedom of expression because he believes that an active and progressive media is vital in a democracy,” Ilagan said.
“We in UNA are one with the National Press Club in condemning media-related violence, and we likewise cry for justice for victims of political violence who were unjustly threatened, harassed, intimidated and killed in this senseless act of political hatred and greed,” he added.
Duterte also yesterday promised to protect journalists.
“In a democracy, the role of media is very important. In the absence of a credible opposition party, you can rely on the media,” he said.
Duterte said it is the media that exposes the wrongdoings of the government but it is also because of this duty that journalists get killed.
To ensure the speedy resolution of media killings, Duterte will put up special courts to handle cases of slain journalists, the mayor’s spokesman, Peter Laviña, said in a statement.
“He [Duterte] will also offer rewards and incentives for the immediate arrest, prosecution, and conviction of the killers,” he said.
Laviña said Duterte will give police investigators and prosecutors quick and limited time to resolve these cases.
According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), 170 journalists have been killed in the country since 1986.
Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday vowed to deliver 190,000 houses for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda, who have been ranting against the present administration’s failure to improve their plight.
“I will make sure that all housing projects for Yolanda victims will be finished within the first year of my administration),” Binay said.
Citing government records, Binay claimed the housing requirement for 14 provinces affected by the calamity in the Visayas reached 205,128 units.
Of these, only 17,641 units had been built as of October 2015. Government expects to build another 92,554 units by the end of the current year.
Such “ineptness,” according to Binay, is “unacceptable” considering the huge number of people who have yet to have a house of their own since Yolanda struck in November 2013.
“It is not acceptable that there are victims of Yolanda who have been waiting for years just to have their homes. We will address their pleas,” stressed Binay.
“We will order all government agencies concerned with the housing programme to address the problem and accelerate the construction of the housing units,” he added.
Binay also vowed that there will be no delays in the release of calamity funds to aid calamity victims.
He issued the statement after the department of budget and management announced the release of P2.25bn for Bottom Up Budgeting projects in the Eastern Visayas only a month before the 2016 national elections.
He said that unlike this malpractice, calamity and rehabilitation funds for affected areas would not have to be delayed for a long time. He said the victims became victims twice over when such funds were delayed.
Binay added that poverty can easily worsen in a calamity-hit area if the government will not immediately address the problems caused by calamities.
The vice president noted that the poverty incidence in Eastern Visayas worsened to 54.9% during the first half of 2014 following the devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda. It was 45.2% in 2012.