Superbody probe to include Maguindanao case–Palace

MALACAÑANG on Sunday said the superbody which President Duterte is set to create to look into the killings of journalists in the country would also investigate the Maguindanao massacre and other previous cases of violence perpetrated against members of media.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the draft of the administrative order forming a new task force on media killings was ready for the President’s approval.

He said Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo and lawyers from the Office of the Executive Secretary had finished reviewing the proposed administrative order.

“Right now, we have the 20/20 hindsight of what happened in the previous years. But what’s important is we get (the order for) this task force against media killings,” the communications secretary told government-run dzRB radio..

“It’s a very positive direction for us to be able to investigate (and) seek justice for those who have been victims of extrajudicial media killings,” he said.

He expressed confidence the new investigating team, which Andanar himself would head, would be able “to put a final period or exclamation point to finding out the root of these unnecessary and illegal killings of our brothers and sisters in the media.”

Asked if the investigation would include such cases of media killings as the grisly murders of 32 media workers in Maguindanao in 2009, he said: “Of course. That has always been the cry of people in the media and concerned quarters in our country.”

“We will recommend to the President that the past cases should be reviewed. (As) they say, justice (delayed) is certainly injustice,” he said.

He said the government should fast-track the resolution of existing cases to “give justice to those families who have been victimized by the ‘overdue’ process.”

In an earlier interview, Andanar told the Inquirer the body would help “ascertain the reasons reporters are being killed—if they’re crusaders or just extortionists.”

Meanwhile, Andanar played down insinuations the President had yet to sign the draft executive order allowing freedom of information (FOI) because it had content that was questionable .

“There are no contentious issues in the (FOI) executive order,” he said. “It was (just) overtaken by events like the decision of the (UN) Permanent Court of Arbitration (on the West Philippine Sea issue). But this week, we will try to have it signed by the President.”