Bangkok, December 21, 2016--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the Philippines to establish the motive behind the murder of newspaper publisher Larry Que and bring the perpetrators swiftly to justice.

Que was shot in the head at close range at around 10:00 a.m. on December 19 while entering an office building in Catanduanes province's town of Virac, according to news reports. A gunman wearing a helmet, bonnet, and raincoat escaped on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice, reports said. Que died early yesterday morning while receiving treatment for his injury at the Eastern Bicol Medical Center.

Que was publisher and columnist at the local Catanduanes News Now, a weekly community newspaper established this year, according to local reports. He was also the owner of a local insurance company and ran for mayor of Virac in an election he lost in May, reports said. Teresa Reyes, an off-duty police officer who witnessed the crime, said Que was returning from the local Land Transportation Office when he was shot in front of his company's office building, reports said.

"Philippine authorities should quickly apprehend the assailants and determine the motive behind publisher Larry Que's murder," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. "President Rodrigo Duterte has sent mixed messages on his government's commitment to protecting journalists and upholding press freedom. He should set the record straight by quickly solving Que's killing through legal means."

In October, Duterte created by executive order a new multi-agency government task force to probe unresolved media murder cases and prevent violence against journalists, according to press reports.

Que was shot soon after his newspaper published a column he wrote alleging "official negligence" over an illegal methamphetamine laboratory recently raided by police in the island province, news reports said. The article also speculated that the illegal plant, reportedly the largest ever discovered in the Philippines, may have been established by Chinese nationals working with ethnic Chinese residents of the province, reports said.

Jinky Tabor, a broadcast journalist who also reports for the local Manila Bulletin newspaper, said that she received anonymous death threats after reporting on the police raid of the alleged drug-making facility, according to news reports. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a local press group, said in a statement that Que's murder had sowed fear among local journalists that they could be targeted next for reporting on the laboratory.

The Philippines ranks fourth on CPJ's Impunity Index, a global measure of countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free. More journalists have been killed in direct relation to their work in the Philippines than anywhere apart from Iraq and Syria since CPJ began keeping detailed records in 1992. </s> National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

 Statement

 December 20, 2016

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemns the murder of Larry Que, publisher of Catanduanes News Now, and challenge authorities, particularly the Presidential Task Force on Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Members of the Media, to immediately solve his killing, the first of a media person under the Duterte administration.

According to the NUJP’s Catanduanes chapter, Que was shot in the head by a gunman as he was about to enter the building that houses his insurance office late Monday morning and died around 1:45 a.m.on Tuesday.

His murder came after his column in Catanduanes News Now, of which he was publisher for only two weeks, in which he criticized what he called local officials’ alleged negligence, which allowed the setting up on the island-province of a recently raided shabu laboratory that authorities claimed was the “biggest” so far discovered in the country.

The NUJP-Catanduanes reports that, aside from Que’s murder, at least one other journalist, broadcaster Jinky Tabor, who acted as a witness to the raid on the laboratory, has also received threats.

These have created a climate of fear within the local media community.

It should be stressed that the murder of Que is not the first assault on journalists under the current administration.

On the day of Duterte’s inauguration, motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and wounded Saturnino “Jan” Estanio of Radio Mindanao Network’s dxRS in Surigao City and his 12-year old son. A bystander was also slightly injured in the incident.

And last month, Pangasinan journalist Virgilio Maganes survived an attempt on his life by gunmen who apparently attempted to disguise the hit as drug-related. They left behind a cardboard placard that said: “Wag nyo akung tularan drug posher ako (sic).”

Thus far, we have to hear back from authorities despite the creation of task forces to investigate these thankfully botched assassination attempts.

It has not helped that Duterte, who has shown a total aversion to criticism, and some of his officials have time and again been openly hostile towards journalists and the media as a whole, with his loyal supporters taking up the cue and heaping insults, curses and even threats through social media on several of our colleagues.

Nor has it helped that an army of trolls and social media operators are waging a campaign of lies through fake news sites that they tout as their “people’s alternative” to “biased” media or that Duterte’s spokesmen are forever having to explain his statements and blaming media for failing to see beyond what they insist is “hyperbole” or, alternately, to apply “creative imagination.”

We call on this administration to walk the talk and prove its professed respect for press freedom, not only by quickly solving these brazen assaults on press freedom but, just as importantly, by ending its penchant of falsely blaming media for deliberately misinterpreting its often inconsistent and incoherent messages and instead working on making its communications crystal-clear. </s> Bangkok, August 7, 2017--A Filipino journalist was shot and killed today while riding a motorcycle in the town of President Quirino, on the southern island of Mindanao, news reports said. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killing and called on Philippine authorities to identify the assailants and swiftly bring them to justice.

Leonardo Diaz, a columnist at the local Sapol News newspaper and volunteer reporter at Radio Mindanao-Cotabato, was shot multiple times near the town's Kalanawi II village at around 9 a.m., the reports said. Senior Police Inspector Joan Resurrecion said Diaz died on the spot, the reports said. Two companions who were with Diaz were injured and were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, reports said. News reports gave conflicting accounts on whether there were one or two assailants, who fled the scene by motorcycle.

"Authorities must quickly apprehend the perpetrators and determine the motive behind the murder of journalist Leonardo Diaz," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's Southeast Asia representative. "Until President Rodrigo Duterte shows he is serious about protecting journalists, these types of brazen killings will continue in an unbroken cycle of impunity."

Diaz's murder is at least the second attack on a journalist in the country in recent weeks. On July 28, an unknown assailant shot and critically wounded radio commentator Julito Orillandea in the town of Marihatag, also in Mindanao. Police have not announced any suspects or arrests in that crime, according to press reports.

On December 19, an unidentified gunman shot and killed newspaper publisher Larry Que at his office in Catanduanes province's town of Vivac, according to media reports. Que was shot soon after his newspaper published a column he wrote alleging official negligence over an illegal methamphetamine laboratory that police raided in the island province, news reports said. CPJ is investigating to determine if his murder was in direct retaliation for his work.

The Philippines ranked fourth on CPJ's latest Impunity Index, a measure of countries worldwide where journalist are killed and the murderers go free. </s> ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - Two journalists have been shot dead in two days in separate incidents in the Philippines, reinforcing the country's image as one of the world's most dangerous for media workers, officials said Monday (Aug 7).

Broadcaster Rudy Alicaway and columnist Leo Diaz were the third and fourth journalists to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte, a vocal critic of the press, took office last year, said Dabet Panelo, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

In both cases the victims were riding motorcycles when gunmen on another motorcycle came up behind and shot them dead.

Diaz, 60, a correspondent of Manila tabloid Balita (News) and a columnist for a community newspaper, was killed in the southern town of President Quirino on Monday, said Fort Yerro, a Balita consultant.

Diaz, a former policeman, had covered stories on political corruption, illegal gambling and drugs, said Yerro, but added that he did not know of any threats against him.

Alicaway, 47, who hosted a weekly community affairs show on DXPB radio station, was killed in the town of Molave on Sunday, a police report said.

Rocel Navarro, manager of the government-run station where the victim's show aired, said he had not covered controversial issues.

"We are asking ourselves why this happened to him. He had no enemies as a broadcaster," Navarro told AFP.

Both killings took place on the southern island of Mindanao, where Islamic militants, communist guerrillas and political warlords are active.

"This again highlights the culture of impunity, in the attacks against and killings of Filipino journalists that have remained unabated despite an international outcry," the NUJP said.

Last week Michael Marasigan, a respected former newspaper editor, was shot dead in a Manila suburb.

A study by the International Federation of Journalists said last year that 146 journalists were killed between 1990 and 2015, making the Philippines the second most dangerous country for the media after Iraq.

Duterte, who took office last year, has lashed out at journalists over critical coverage of his anti-drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.

Shortly before taking office, Duterte made comments widely interpreted as justifying the murder of some journalists.

"Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you're a son of a bitch," he said. </s> KORONADAL, Philippines (AP) — Philippine anti-narcotics officers gunned down a town mayor and nine of his men in a clash Friday in one of the bloodiest operations since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a crackdown on illegal drugs.

Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, who was killed with the nine others, has been publicly named by Duterte among many politicians he accused of involvement in illegal drugs as part of a shame campaign.

In August, Duterte read out the names of more than 150 officials allegedly linked to illegal drugs. He ordered them to surrender to authorities immediately or be hunted down. The mayor had turned himself in to police and denied he was involved in the illegal drug trade. He had told the media that he was fighting illegal drugs himself and supported Duterte’s crackdown.

“It was a legitimate anti-drug operation but the subjects opened fire on our troops,” regional police official Superintendent Romeo Galgo Jr. told reporters.

They were killed before dawn when they opened fire from three cars on officers at a checkpoint in Makilala town in North Cotabato province, another officer, Superintendent Bernard Tayong, said.

Ahead of the deadly firefight, police received information that Dimaukom’s group was planning to transport a “huge” amount of methamphetamine — a prohibited and extremely addictive stimulant drug locally known as shabu — from Davao city, Duterte’s hometown, to Maguindanao province, where Datu Saudi Ampatuan town is located.

Police estimate more than 3,600 suspected drug dealers and addicts have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30. The crackdown has drawn international concern over extrajudicial killings, but Duterte has repeatedly dismissed criticism and vowed to keep his election promise to rid the country of drugs.

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report. </s> MANILA: A Philippine mayor President Rodrigo Duterte named as being involved in the illegal drug trade was shot dead in jail Saturday, police said, the second local official implicated in narcotics to be killed in two weeks.

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state, and has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has left more than 4,000 people dead.

He had named several local officials, policemen and judges as being involved in the narcotics trade and urged them to surrender.

In August, he accused Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town in the central island of Leyte, and his son of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giving police a “shoot on sight” order if the two resisted arrest.

Mayor Espinosa then surrendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested last month.

But early Saturday morning, police said Espinosa was killed in his cell in the provincial jail after he shot at officers during a search for illegal firearms.

“He fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the mayor’s death,” chief inspector Leo Laraga of the regional police told Agence France-Presse.

He added that another inmate accused of drug trafficking was also killed, after he too fired at the officers.

The national police said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding Espinosa’s death as well as possible collusion between guards and inmates to get guns and drugs into the jail.

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa previously said Espinosa had been listed in official records as a “drug protector”, whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is set to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charges.

In August, six of the Espinosas’ supporters died in a gunfight with police outside the mayor’s property in Albuera where officers said they recovered guns and several grenades.

Another mayor accused of drug trafficking was killed in the southern Philippines in late October.

Police said Samsudin Dimaukom and his security personnel opened fire after anti-narcotics police stopped their vehicles at a checkpoint on suspicion they were transporting illegal drugs. AFP </s> ROLANDO Espinosa became the second town mayor killed amid the government’s bloody anti-drug campaign, shot dead in his jail cell early Saturday — police claimed — after firing at operatives serving a search warrant.

The Interior and Local Government department immediately called for an investigation into the brazen killing, which the Palace described as “unfortunate.”

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said Espinosa, mayor of Albuera, Leyte, and another inmate, identified as Raul Yap, were killed in a shootout with police around 4 a.m. Saturday inside the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail in Barangay Hispungo, Baybay City, Leyte.

PNP spokesman Sr. Supt. Dionardo Carlos said a team of operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) led by Chief Insp. Leo Laraga were out to implement search warrants for illegal drugs and firearms against the two inmates.

The warrants were issued by Judge Tarcelo Sabarre Jr. of the Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in Basey, Samar.

“He (Espinosa) fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the mayor’s death,” Laraga told AFP.

Yap, also accused of drug trafficking, was likewise killed after he too fired at the officers, Laraga said.

Carlos said in a statement: “Both Espinosa and Yap succumbed to gunshot wounds as a result of the encounter.”

The Interior department, citing initial reports, said police recovered one caliber Super .38 and a magazine with live ammunition from Espinosa’s cell, and one caliber .45 and a magazine with live ammunition from Yap’s cell.

Police were also said to have found one sachet of “suspected shabu” and drug paraphernalia in the cells of Espinosa and Yap.

Radio station DZMM reported, quoting the Leyte provincial administrator, that closed-circuit television footage of the jail was missing.

Internal probe ordered

 As a matter of procedure, the incident will be investigated, he said.

“This incident will undergo investigation to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the said incident,” Carlos said.

The PNP spokesman said the Eastern Visayas Police Office under Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar had formed a panel that will look into the incident.

The Regional Internal Affairs Service of the PNP in Eastern Visayas will also conduct its own investigation.

Carlos pointed out that the Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail is administered and managed by the provincial government of Leyte.

Tagged by Duterte

 Albuera’s death followed that of Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao, who was killed along with his bodyguards at a checkpoint in North Cotabato on October 28.

In August, President Rodrigo Duterte accused Espinosa and his son Kerwin of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giving police a “shoot on sight” order if the two resisted arrest.

Mayor Espinosa then surrendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested on October 5 over charges of possessing illegal drugs and weapons.

PNP Chief Ronald de la Rosa previously said Espinosa had been listed in official records as a “drug protector,” whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is set to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charges.

In August, six of the Espinosas’ supporters died in a gunfight with police outside the mayor’s property in Albuera where officers said they recovered guns and several grenades.

‘Unfortunate’

 Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said he would wait for the results of the probe before issuing commentary.

“Right now it’s really under investigation so wala po tayong actual na komentaryo patungkol diyan [so we cannot give an actual comment on that],” Abella told government-run dzRB radio.

“Investigation is now ongoing but initial reports indicate that the former mayor was killed while being served a search warrant,” Andanar said in a text message to reporters.

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said that while Espinosa and Yap were high-profile inmates linked to the illegal drug trade, it was necessary for the police to adhere to their operations manual and respect the rights of the suspects, “unless their lives are endangered.”

“It is unfortunate that this operation led to this (death of the inmates), but of course, we also do not want our people (policemen) to be the one lying dead in the course of doing their job,” he said in a statement. </s> MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' police chief on Friday stood by anti-narcotics officers and rejected a Reuters investigation that pointed to a pattern of police sending corpses of drug suspects to hospitals to destroy crime scene evidence and hide executions.

President Rodrigo Duterte took office in the Philippines a year ago, launching a bloody war on drugs that has killed thousands of Filipinos.

In a television interview to mark the anniversary, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa appeared irritated by questions about the Reuters report, published on Thursday, and said police carrying out anti-drugs operations had a duty to save lives, even when encountering violent resistance.

He said police were not medically qualified to determine whether a victim was dead or alive and sent victims to hospital as part of operational procedure.

"What do you want, we let the wounded die? You don't want us to rescue his life?" he told news channel ANC.

The Reuters investigation analyzed crime data from two of Metro Manila's five police districts and included accounts of doctors, witnesses, law enforcement officials and victims' families. [nL8N1JQ2NQ]

It showed a pattern of police sending dead bodies to hospitals, preventing thorough crime scene investigations from taking place after the killing of drug suspects. [nL8N1JQ2NQ]

Dela Rosa said Reuters, which has produced a series of in-depth reports into the war on drugs that have questioned official accounts, was "looking for faults" in the police.

"PNP is damned if you do, damned if you don't. Reuters really is looking for faults in us. We have to stand by our police operational procedure that in case of an encounter, if a person is not yet declared dead by the physician, you need to bring him to the hospital."

He added: "Who are the policemen to say they are dead? They are not medical practitioners. If we did not bring them to the hospitals, the relatives might sue us."

A spokeswoman for Reuters said the news agency stood by its reporting.

Duterte's bloody campaign has been condemned by human rights groups and alarmed Western countries due to the high death toll and allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings and cover-ups by police. The PNP rejects those allegations.

Reuters looked at police reports covering the first eight months of the drug war, which showed that in Quezon City Police District and neighboring Manila Police District, 301 victims were sent to hospital after police anti-drug operations. Only two survived and the rest were dead on arrival.

In nearly all cases where drug suspects have died during police operations in the year-long crackdown, the official accounts say police fired in self defense. Police say they do not shoot to kill.

Activists, however, say the circumstances behind many of the killings in police sting operations point to executions. A Reuters investigation last year found that when police opened fire in anti-drug operations, they killed 97 percent of people they shot.

The data analyzed in the latest Reuters investigation shows a sharp increase in the number of drug suspects declared dead on arrival in the Quezon City and Manila districts each month.

There were 10 cases when the drug war started a year ago in July 2016, or 13 percent of police drug shooting deaths. By January 2017, the tally rose to 51 cases, or 85 percent, at a time when criticism of Duterte's campaign intensified.

A police commander who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the increase was no coincidence and police were

trying to prevent crime scene investigations and media attention that might show they were executing suspects.

Human rights groups say the anti-drugs crackdown, the signature policy of the populist Duterte, has been disastrous and has almost entirely targeted the poor, with most of those killed or arrested drug users and small-time dealers, with narcotics kingpins largely untouched.

Dela Rosa said police should not be disparaged for trying to save victims and the removal of bodies from a crime scene did not mean a proper investigation could not be carried out.

"Do not put malice in what the police does," he said. "The

crime scene is there even without the dead body." </s> Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, a Muslim autonomous area of Mindanao, was shot along with a number of his bodyguards while allegedly transporting illegal drugs.

The report states that police had set up a highway roadblock aimed at apprehending the mayor based on a tip.

He, along with his wife, surrendered themselves to provincial police in August to clear their names and deny involvement.

At the roadblock early Friday morning, an "armed encounter" between Dimaukom's men and police ensued, the report says, with law enforcement officials responding to fire from the mayor's bodyguards, leaving 10 men dead. Duterte was elected to office in May on a platform of a hardline crackdown on crime, particularly illegal drugs. Since taking office in early June, his police force has waged a bloody war on drug dealers and users, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Filipino drug suspects at the hands of police. Hundreds more have been killed by vigilantes. Many thousands of others have been coerced into registering with their local authorities as drug users in so-called " knock and plead " operations. Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told CNN that all deaths at the hands of police in the country are the result of justified shootings in self-defense. Critics say police are acting with impunity. There's been no evidence presented that Dimaukom was involved in the drug trade. A woman cradles her husband, next to a placard which reads "I'm a pusher," who was shot dead in Manila on July 23, 2016. Police patrol a shanty community at night during curfew on June 8, 2016 in Manila. Philippine police have been conducting frequent night raids and revived a curfew for minors that has not been enforced for years. Some 1,000 people whom authorities accused of being drug users and dealers take an oath before local authorities after turning themselves in in Tanauan, the Philippines, on July 18, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power on a promise to clamp down on drugs in a two-month crime blitz, encouraging police and even civilians to shoot drug dealers. The country has seen a surge in killings of suspected dealers. A man authorities accused of being a drug user is fingerprinted during the mass surrender of some 1,000 alleged drug users and pushers in the Philippine town of Tanauan, located about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of Manila on July 18, 2016. A social worker gives counseling to those who have turned themselves in for drug-related crimes in the Philippines on July 18, 2016. A Philippine police forensic investigator displays packets of drugs and a hand gun found inside a shanty where members of a suspected drug syndicate were killed after a shootout with police on July 3, 2016. A suspected female member of a drug syndicate is presented by police in Manila on June 22, 2016. A gun, bullets, marked money and sachets of crystal meth are laid on a table after a drug raid in Manila on June 20, 2016. Police officers stand in formation before the start of "Oplan Rody" on June 1, 2016, a law enforcement operation named after President Duterte, whose nickname is Rody. Dimaukom is not the first elected official implicated in the drug war. Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera, on the island province of Leyte, was arrested in August. His son, Kerwin Espinosa, 35, is accused by Duterte of being one of the biggest illegal drug operators in the Eastern Visayas region and was arrested earlier in October in Abu Dhabi. He had been on a "shoot on sight" list. Also earlier this month, the Philippines Senate Committee -- led by a Duterte ally -- decided to stop investigating the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and users during the President's first few months in office. The senator heading the committee when the investigation began, a fierce critic of Duterte, was ousted by the President's allies in September.
A news publisher is allegedly killed in the Philippine province of Catanduanes after publishing a story about the controversial drug purge campaign.