CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 7 November) —Some Mindanawon journalists have renewed calls for the government to ease the restrictions for media practitioners to own and carry firearms for self-protection.
Frank Mendez, president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, said that if the police cannot protect journalists, they should be allowed to carry guns for self-protection.
“Ease the requirements for gun license applications and allow journalists the means to protect themselves,” Mendez said.
Mendez said that “hired killers are enjoying the impunity of killing journalists because of the inability of the police to protect them.”
“These killings must be stopped,” he said.
The renewed call came in the wake of the gruesome killing of radio broadcaster Juan “DJ Johny Walker” Jumalon, which was captured live on Facebook, last Sunday.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Jumalon is the fourth journalist killed under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and the 199th since 1986 when press freedom was restored following the downfall of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos Jr. had ordered the police to arrest the killers of Jumalon, saying “such heinous attacks on our journalists have no place in a democratic nation.”
Journalist Randie Makiputin in Bukidnon province welcomed the call for government to ease gun restrictions to allow journalists to buy and carry firearms.
Makiputin said he was attacked by an assailant in 2014, but survived because he pulled a gun first and fired at his assailant, sending his would-be killer scampering.
“I would not be talking to you now if I did not have a gun in my possession then,” Makiputin said.
Another journalist, Ghiner Cabanday, who is based in Iligan City, said he also welcome the idea of arming journalists, but worried that his hot temperament could get in the way of good gun handling.
But some journalists in Mindanao like Ronald Rufin, president of the Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas chapter in Cagayan de Oro, are against the idea of having guns for self-protection.
“If we cannot control irresponsible anchormen who are just armed with a microphone, how much more if they are armed with a gun,” Rufin said.
Rufin said the gun proposal would open the floodgates of “abusive broadcasters swaggering with guns on their hips.”
Philippine Star correspondent John Unson, who survived an ambush attempt in 1999, is also against allowing journalists to carry firearms.
“Not all would become responsible gun owners. We will become another problem for the police,” Unson said.
Unson said it is the responsibility of the government and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to protect journalists and every citizen of the country.
Like Unson, Charlito Manlupig, chair of Balay Mindanao, a pro-peace non-government organization, said arming journalists is not the solution.
“The PNP should redouble their efforts to protect journalists and end the culture of impunity. Otherwise, they should all resign for not doing their jobs,” Manlupig said. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
