The following conditions foster the culture of impunity:
Weak rule of law, which places powerful persons above the law along with political warlords who rule agencies of law and order
Poor police capability for forensic investigation leading to a reliance on witnesses
Poorly funded Witness Protection Program
Judicial system weighed down by rules and regulations that are vulnerable to legal manipulation
Culture of violence and guns
The weaknesses of the criminal justice system as a whole leave so much crime unsolved and unpunished. Against this background, all ordinary citizens are vulnerable to violent attacks and threats. It is not only journalists who are killed. Activists, NGO workers, lawyers, and judges have been killed in such numbers as to have attracted the attention of the United Nations. Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, identified the period and military general in power when these killings occurred. Extrajudicial killings may have been checked but these have not stopped.
The killing of journalists poses an ironic challenge to Philippine society. Newspapers and broadcast news programs hold a special place in national life, with a central role in public discourse.
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The administration of President Aquino has been eloquent in its promise for reforms in various areas of governance, including justice for victims of human rights violation. A critical appointment to his Cabinet, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima presented herself as a staunch and fearless ally in the counter-impunity program. But she must be supported by the entire bureaucracy as well as other government agencies.
The government’s third branch, the judicial system, is separate and equal from the executive. Judicial reform is not one that can be ordered by executive fiat. But it can be pushed by presidential initiative.
The Aquino administration may be poised to be more proactive on these issues. But advocate groups have not yet seen the shift of policy or a visible and dramatic action that will counter impunity. Believing in the power of presidential action to turn things around, advocates have been disheartened by the lack of the same.
So once again, there is this long and frustrating wait.
(Melinda Quintos de Jesus is the executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.)
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