The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday, Jan. 24, assured United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom on Expression and Opinion Irene Khan that it will continue to run after perpetrators of media killings and “red-tagging.”

This was assured during a dialogue with Khan held at the DOJ main office in Manila with Undersecretaries Raul T. Vasquez and Jesse Hermogenes T. Andres.

In a press briefing, the two DOJ officials revealed that Khan had sought updates from them concerning the deaths of four media personalities including broadcaster Percival C. Mabasa also known as Percy Lapid as well as concerns about red-tagging in the country.

During the dialogue, Vasquez assured Khan that the government has been engaged in reforms to protect members of the media.

“All of these reforms are really meant to ensure that everybody, not just media practitioners, will be protected,” he said.

Among these reforms, Andres disclosed that the DOJ is seeking to amend Administrative Order (AO) 35 which is a government mechanism for the investigation of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and grave violations of human rights.

“So we are reviewing the operational guidelines of AO 35 and, in fact on Tuesday, there will be an inter-agency committee hearing here in DOJ to discuss certain amendments,” Andres said.

 “We want to include in the AO 35 operational guidelines a more pro-active stance of prosecutors consistent with Department Circular No. 20 where prosecutors will proactively coordinate and partner with law enforcement agents to build up the case at its inception,” he explained.  He lamented that “previously, we have not been doing that.”

On red-tagging, Andres said they assured Khan that red-tagging is not a state policy.

“If there were individual cases that we need to address for red tagging that happened we asked that all of the complainants and evidence be brought forth before the Department of Justice and we will pursue appropriate cases against those involved in red tagging,” he said.

 “If there is a state actor or non-state actor that is involved in red-tagging we will pursue cases against these individuals to show that  it is indeed the present state policy,” he assured 

 At the same time, Andres said the DOJ assured Khan that “we have sufficient mechanisms to address this matter of red-tagging.”

He said “there is an ongoing pro-active effort on the part of the Department of Justice where we have been engaging with civil society organizations.”

 “That is how we believe we can bridge the gap, especially to address red-tagging,” he pointed out.

 “We need to build confidence with civil society organizations that their advocacies are equallly our advocacies and we are partners with them in pursuing these advocacies,” he also said. 

On the killing of Mabasa, Andres said they told Khan that “despite the fact that the accused here is a high-ranking government official with the level of undersecretary we pursued the case, we were able to build up the case against the individual and in fact the court has already issued a warrant of arrest.”

It can be recounted that the Las Pinas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has already issued an arrest warrant against former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Q. Bantag who is facing a murder case for the killing of Mabasa.

“So that is one good development we were able to report that in fact there is no whitewashing of any particular case even it involves a high-ranking government official,”  Andres said.

 “We explained not all of these killings have a direct relation to press freedom or freedom of expression,” he added.

He said he told Khan that many of the media killings that have taken place in the country were “not related to freedom of expression.”

“The reason behind their deaths are really personal vendetta or money controversies or money issues or even love triangle. So, it’s not related to freedom of expression even if the victims were themsleves were media personalities,” he said.