One of his most consistent critics, particularly of his human rights record, Senator Leila De Lima, was and still is detained on dubious charges that she had enabled drug deals and the operations of a drug cartel inside the New Bilibid Prison during her term as secretary of justice.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who often challenges the President’s policies and exposes anomalies involving administration officials, has been charged with various alleged offenses related to his involvement in past coup attempts for which, however, he had been amnestied years ago. Others who have spoken on, or who have been involved in protests against Duterte or his policies and programs have been subjected to social media attacks, including allegations of involvement in plotting his ouster.

The pattern has held since then:  Duterte barks at critics, and his officials file charges, convince the courts to issue warrants of arrest, and threaten them with imprisonment, while his keyboard army of social media trolls demonizes them.

THE MEDIA INCLUDED

Despite Constitutional guarantees of press freedom, journalists have been killed in the Philippines and are continuing to be targeted during the Duterte regime.  But the number of harassments and threats against journalists, media workers and news organizations is rising, together with a campaign to similarly intimidate press freedom advocates and defenders.

The president’s punishing hand has reached out to restrain with public shaming and actual legal action the most well-known journalists and some of the biggest media organizations.

Duterte has also threatened the Lopez family’s ABS-CBN Corporation with the cancellation of its franchise, as well as with charges of multiple estafa.  

The online news site Rappler’s Maria Ressa and her board of trustees are facing four cases of tax evasion in different courts. Earlier in 2018, the incorporation papers of Rappler Holdings Corporation were revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission just a few months after Duterte claimed that it was foreign-owned.

The President’s public ridicule of critical journalists has also been central to the intimidation of the press. He has responded with insults and profanities to questions about his health, while his supporters cheer him,  threaten journalists with physical harm, and incite others to violence.

The context has not changed much since 2016 in terms of how the Duterte administration deals with critics in media. The media field is admittedly littered with contentious issues, which in itself is not remarkable.  But there have been more cases reported today of other forms of attacks and threats against the press which journalists tended in the past not to report or document. The Duterte administration’s demonstrated hostility against the press has apparently made the media community more watchful of the transgressions of a government bent on silencing the independent press and focused on getting the positive coverage it desires.

Duterte’s hostility towards the media effectively signals to other enemies of press freedom that it is okay to silence journalists not only through threats of danger to them and their families, but also through physical and other attacks and even murder.

In 2018 alone, CMFR recorded 34 incidents of verbal, physical and online threats and attacks, of which 14 were directed at news organizations, 13 at male reporters and seven at women journalists. Fourteen cases occurred in the National Capital Region (NCR). NCR has the highest number of attacks and threats recorded in the last five years.  

News organizations were also subjected to police visits and intimidation. Policemen visited different news organizations in April to look into the backgrounds of members of the PNP press corps. Some of their questions were sensitive and personal.  The PNP said the “survey” was part of a new policy for media accreditation. The police also visited news organizations in the Visayas in October, this time to openly ask for favorable coverage of the PNP’s drug campaign.

Four of the 17 attacks were by national government agencies and officers: the barring of Rappler reporters and correspondents from coverage, the revocation of Rappler’s incorporation papers and the filing of tax evasion cases against the news organization.

FOUR MEDIA KILLINGS

Four out of the seven instances of journalists killed during the period were work-related, bringing the number of journalists killed for their work to 12 since Duterte became President in 2016, and to 65 since 1986.

OTHER THREATS AND ATTACKS

There were 30 other attacks and threats in 2018. Aside from the killings, there were two cases of slay attempts:

Marchoflix Lucabon of dyRF Bombo Radyo in Cebu on July 27, and Joel Pimentel of Radyo Bandera 100.7 News FM in Surigao del Sur on December 29. Both had received death threats days before two men on a motorcycle shot at them.

Unidentified men also fired at the house of News Radio Anchor Rey Siason on September 19. Siason was not in his home but he believed that he was the target of the attack. No one was hurt in the incident.

Five cases of website attacks were recorded during the period.

Vera Files on January 29 and Kodao Productions on February 2 were temporarily down after they published reports critical of the administration.  The alternative news websites Kodao, Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly were inaccessible on December 26 due to a cyber-attack. The web takedown happened during the 50^th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). These news organizations have been tagged as CPP legal “fronts” by the police and military. Prior to the incident, Duterte had been very vocal about his intent to “crush” the CPP and its military arm, the New People’s Army, as well as the party list and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) he claims to be part of its “political infrastructure”.  

Other attacks and threats in 2018 included the following:

Despite calls from human rights defenders and journalists’ groups to end the unrelenting attacks and threats against journalists, the environment has allowed suspects and perpetrators to continue to bully media workers and organizations. The justice system has remained slow-paced. Most investigations end at the police level. Crime suspects especially those in the killing of journalists remained unidentified.

In the 164 cases of journalists killed in the line of duty since 1986, only 17 have been partly resolved, with the conviction only of the gunmen while the masterminds remain free.

In the case of Bombo Radyo Kalibo broadcaster Herson Hinolan who was killed November 13, 2004, the murder case filed against convicted mastermind former Lezo, Aklan Mayor Alfredo Arsenio, was downgraded to homicide. The massacre of 58 people including 32 journalists in Ampatuan Maguindanao has reached its ninth year without final resolution.  

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