H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President
Malacañang Palace
Manila
Republic of the Philippines
Fax: (011.63.2) 735.6152
Your Excellency:
It was with the greatest sadness that we learned last week of the assassination of Ernesto Rollin, a presenter on local radio station DXSY in Ozamis City — sadness for Rollin and those who cared about him, obviously, but sadness as well for the Philippines and the threat to its future as an Asian democracy.
Rollin, as you probably know, was a well-regarded radio personality in Mindanao known for his fierce commentaries on local corruption. According to news accounts, he was shot at close range on his way to work on February 23 by two masked men riding a motorcycle. The evidence, as we have learned from Reporters Without Borders, suggests that his murderers knew Rollin’s travel pattern — a strong indication that he was targeted. Our colleagues at the Committee to Protect Journalists were among those who noted that the killing “strongly resembles the frequent assassinations of Philippine journalists in the remote Southern provinces in retribution for their outspoken reporting.”
We are glad to hear that provincial and national police in the Philippines have set up a special task force to investigate the killing. As we are sure of which you are only too well aware, Your Excellency, Rollin is the 40th journalist to be murdered in consequence of his work since you took office.
Since the restoration of democracy in the Philippines in 1986, seventy seven of our colleagues in the Philippine media have been targeted. Ernesto Rollin now joins their number. With his death, the Philippines loses one more guardian of its aspirations to join the thriving democracies of the world.
Respectfully yours,
Norman A. Schorr
Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E. Willy C. Gaa
Ambassador of the Philippines to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines
1600 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Fax: (202) 467.9417
Ambassador Hilario G. Davide, Jr.
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the United Nations
556 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10036
Fax: (212) 840.8602
H.E. Kristie A. Kenney
U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines
Embassy of the United States of America
1201 Roxas Boulevard
Manila
Philippines
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Manila Times
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