THE National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) today, March 6, 2014, condemns in the strongest word possible, the attack just past 9:00 am this morning, against NPC regular member and Remate Cavite correspondent, Rubie Garcia, 52, by three armed suspects right at the doorstep of her house in Bgy. Talaba 2, Bacoor.
Today’s incident is just the latest in the series of violent attack against journalists since Pres. Benigno Aquino III took office in 2010, vowing to put an end to the ‘culture of impunity’ whose most frequent victims are members of the press.
Unlike in previous incidents where media members are assaulted and killed in far-flung provinces, Ms. Garcia was shot in Bacoor, which is already part of Metro Manila.
With the Aquino government’s continued indifference to the NPC’s repeated pleas for an end to media killings and the creation of a special task force whose sole purpose is to bring their attackers and the brains behind these attacks to the bar of justice, enemies of press freedom are getting bolder each day.
The attack against Ms. Garcia, therefore, signals the heightened threat to the physical safety of journalists even in the nation’s capital.
What is more galling is that her house is just a stone’s throw away from the local police station but as usual, the suspects managed to escape.
In other words, three years of inaction by the Aquino government to stop the violence against the media has resulted to a situation wherein there is no more safe place for Filipino journalists in the provinces, in Metro Manila and even in the supposed ‘safety’ of their homes.
In this particular case, we call once more on the Aquino government to solve the attack against Ms. Garcia at the soonest time possible.
We also call on the Filipino people to pray for Ms. Garcia while she is undergoing emergency operation to save her life.
The post ‘No more safe place for journalists—NPC appeared first on Remate.
.. Continue: Remate.ph (source)
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