Reporter Killed in Her Home in Philippines

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in expressing its condemnation at the brutal killing of a Filipino journalist in Barangay Talaba, Bacoor in the city of Cavite. The female radio broadcaster was the first Filipino journalist to be killed in 2014. The Philippines remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Rubylita Garcia, 52, a reporter for the tabloid Remate and a block timer of dwAD radio station in Cavite sustained at least four gunshot wounds when unidentified number of gunmen barged into her home in Barangay Talaba, Bacoor around 10:15am on Sunday, April 6. She was shot repeatedly in front of her son and 10-year-old granddaughter. Garcia underwent surgery at St Dominic Hospital in Cavite but died several hours later, at 3 pm. The NUJP and IFJ expressed deepest condolences for Rubylita’s family and are calling for an immediate investigation into her murder. In a statement the NUJP said: “A thorough investigation must be conducted to determine the motive of the attack and to identity the suspects behind this tragedy.” “When President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III came to office in 2010 he has repeatedly claimed that the nation is in "democracy" again. This claim becomes more and more tenuous with each media killing.” When it comes to the killing of journalists the Philippines remains a haven for impunity. The IFJ said: “The ongoing failure of the State to protect journalists and bring their killers to justice, perpetuates a cycle of death for media workers in the Philippines where killers can brazenly confront journalists in their homes or on the street with the full knowledge that the policing and justice system is incapable of dealing with journalist murders. “With impunity for journalist murders now a major priority for the United Nations, the Aquino government is guilty by its own inaction. In the global arena, it can no longer continue to foster this rampant abuse of human rights by its own failures to act.” Four years on from the Ampatuan massacre of 32 journalists, not a single perpetrator has been convicted; three crucial witnesses have been killed; only 104 of the 195 accused have been read charges; while 88 suspects remain at large.  The NUJP statement continued: “It is all too clear to us that the president’s promises are meaningless. He is just as guilty as those who gave the orders to kill and those who pulled the trigger. Any unresolved attack or killing of journalists deepens the culture of impunity that leads to more violence against media workers.” The IFJ joins with the NUJP in demanding justice for Rubylita Garcia and all Filipino journalists who have been victim to these continuing heinous attacks and whose murders have not been resolved by the wheels of justice expected of democracy. 

 

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