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Five years ago today, a gunman strode into the home of muckraking Philippine journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat, pulled out a .45-caliber pistol, and shot her once in the head. A columnist and radio host on the southern island of Mindanao, Garcia-Esperat had made plenty of enemies while exposing government corruption.
April 11,
2005—Police arrest Gerry
Cabayag, Randy Grecia, Estanislao Bismanos and Rowie Barua for
carrying out the murder. In testimony, Barua, a military officer, revealed regional agriculture department officials Osmeña Montaner
and Estrella Sabay ordered him to hire the gunmen, according to CPJ
research.
June 2005—Nena Santos, a private prosecutor
working for the Esperat family, petitions to transfer the case from Tacurong to
the more neutral city of
August, 31, 2005—One day before the case
is to be moved to
May 15, 2006—CPJ writes to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urging
the government to acknowledge the problem of impunity in journalist murders.
October 6, 2006—Cebu Regional Trial Court
convicts
assailants Cabayag, Grecia, and Bismanos of murder and
gives each a minimum sentence of 30 years without parole (described as
synonymous with a life sentence in the local media). Barua is acquitted. Justice Secretary Raul
Gonzales orders reinstatement of murder charges against Montañer and Sabay.
July 26, 2007—CPJ delegation in Manila
meets with journalists and Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno to
discuss how to combat impunity.
October 7, 2007—The Road to Justice, a CPJ
special report by Sheila Coronel and
February 4 2008—
March 21, 2008—
October, 2008—Murder charges are refiled
against Montaner and Sabay at the regional court in Tacurong. New arrest
warrants are issued. (See CPJ report
and blog).
February 2009—Freedom Fund for
Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), a coalition of six
media groups and a CPJ partner in the Global Campaign Against
Impunity, requests a change in the location of the trial,
from the Tacurong City Regional Trial Court to
March 23, 2009—CPJ launches the 2009
Global Impunity
Index, listing countries which fail to prosecute journalist murders, in
March 2009—Suspects Montaner and
Sabay file the first of two motions to quash the arrest warrants against them.
The Tacurong court dismisses both, according to CPJ
Alert and local news reports.
August 26, 2009—The Philippines Supreme Court grants FFFJ’s
request to transfer the case from Tacurong City Regional Trial Court to
December 3, 2009—An appellate court in Cagayan de Oro City, northern
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