The allegation recently made by SPO3 Arturo Lascañas that the murder of Davao broadcaster Jun Pala was ordered by then Davao City mayor and now President Duterte deserves serious investigation. Lascañas’ claim echoed what self-declared “Davao Death Squad” member Edgar Matobato had earlier bared.
We are aware of the strong emotions the memory of Pala evokes; there are those who feel grief is wasted on him and that any honest attempt to probe his killing would be an exercise in futility. However, to succumb to this thinking is to succumb to the same exact mindset that continues to drive extrajudicial killings in this country, whether the victim is a journalist or activist, farmer or priest, lumad or judge, or one perceived to be a threat to the status quo, or—a “subhuman” or “collateral damage” in the war on drugs.
If Mr. Duterte did order Pala’s murder, then he should be tried, no ands, ifs or buts, and if found guilty, convicted. But whether he ordered the hit or not, what matters is that there are now two potential witnesses whose accounts may finally lay bare the truth behind Pala’s death and, at the very least, help temper the culture of impunity that continues to wreak havoc on countless lives, due process and the rule of law.
Whatever his sins may have been, Jun Pala, just like all the other journalists murdered in this country since 1986, was deprived of his life without due process. To justify Pala’s death is to justify the death of all murdered journalists.
RYAN ROSAURO, chair, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, nujphil@gmail.com