SP condemns killing of Mindanao radio commentator
BACOLOD CITY -- Former radio broadcasters who are sitting now in Bacolod Sangguniang Panglungsod passed a resolution Wednesday strongly condemning the brutal killing of Aristeo Padrigao, a radio commentator of DXRS Radyo Natin and columnist of Mindanao Monitor Today, of Gingoog City.
Councilors Alex Paglumotan, Greg Gasataya and Homer Bais urged the Philippine National Police to exercise its conduct of giving the maximum efforts in order to bring the perpetrators of the crime including its masterminds before the bar of justice.
The ambushed of Padrigao happened on November 17, 2008, and had been added to the list of 120 tri-media members killed in the country since 1986 per the records of Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP.
"Press freedom is a noble profession in pursuit of truth and social transformation supposedly enshrined and guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines after the restoration of democracy in EDSA 1 revolution or the bloodless people power in 1986," the resolution stated.
No less than Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made recent declaration that her administration will do everything to ensure the protection of press freedom and its practitioners.
They also urged the national media organizations and its provincial affiliates to re-unify their strength and to intensify their network and influence in order to draw the most possible mechanism for the common protection of all the members of the tri-media practitioners in the country.
Copies of the resolution were immediately sent to the national offices of Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), National Press Club and local media organizations.