In response to the statement by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s chief aide, Eduardo Ermita, that the 24 murders of journalists in Philippines had all been “properly attended to,” we issued this statement today…
“It is outrageous for the Philippine government to declare these murders have been ‘properly attended to’ when not one single conviction has been made in any of these cases,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “There’s no mystery how the Philippines got on CPJ’s global impunity index ‘Getting Away with Murder 2009′: the unsolved murders of 24 journalists. There is also no mystery how the Philippine government can get off the list: convict the killers of these journalists. CPJ will continue to support the efforts of Philippine government in solving these murders and we hope it can exert every effort to ensure the prosecution of the remaining cases.”