The Department of Justice (DOJ) assured Wednesday that visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) Irene Khan of the Philippine government’s commitment to promote and protect freedom of expression and opinion in the country.
During a dialogue with Khan held at the DOJ main office in Manila, Undersecretaries Raul Vasquez and Jesse Hermogenes Andres also vowed to go after the perpetrators of media killings and “red-tagging.”
The two DOJ officials revealed that Khan sought updates from them concerning the deaths of four media personalities, including broadcaster Percival Mabasa (also known as ‘Percy Lapid’), as well as issues about red-tagging in the country.
During the dialogue, Vasquez assured Khan that the government has been engaged in reforms to protect members of the media. “All of these reforms are really meant to ensure that everybody, not just media practitioners, will be protected,” he said in a press briefing.
Andres said among these reforms that the DOJ is seeking include the amendment to Administrative Order (AO) 35, which is a government mechanism for the investigation of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and grave violations of human rights.
“We are reviewing the operational guidelines of AO 35 and, in fact on Tuesday, there will be an inter-agency committee hearing here in DOJ to discuss certain amendments,” Andres said.
“We want to include in the AO 35 operational guidelines a more proactive stance of prosecutors consistent with Department Circular No. 20, where prosecutors will proactively coordinate and partner with law enforcement agents to build up the case at its inception,” he explained. He lamented that “previously, we have not been doing that.”
On red-tagging, Andres assured Khan that it is not a state policy. He said the DOJ will pursue cases against individuals involved in such activity to demonstrate this position.
“If there were individual cases that we need to address for red-tagging that happened, we asked that all of the complainants and evidence be brought forth before the Department of Justice and we will pursue appropriate cases against those involved in red-tagging,” he said.
At the same time, Andres said the DOJ assured Khan that “we have sufficient mechanisms to address this matter of red-tagging,” including proactive efforts to engage with civil society organizations.
“That is how we believe we can bridge the gap, especially to address red-tagging,” he pointed out. “We need to build confidence with civil society organizations that their advocacies are equally our advocacies and we are partners with them in pursuing these advocacies.”
On the killing of Mabasa, Andres said they told Khan that “despite the fact that the accused here is a high-ranking government official with the level of undersecretary, we pursued the case. We were able to build up the case against the individual and, in fact, the court has already issued a warrant of arrest.”
He was referring to the Las Pinas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) issuing an arrest warrant against former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag, who is facing a murder case for the killing of Mabasa.
“So, that is one good development we were able to report that, in fact, there is no whitewashing of any particular case even if it involves a high-ranking government official,” Andres said.
“We explained that not all of these killings have a direct relation to press freedom or freedom of expression,” he added.
“The reason behind their deaths are really personal vendetta or money controversies or money issues or even love triangles. So, it’s not related to freedom of expression even if the victims themselves were media personalities,” the DOJ official stressed.