MANILA, Philippines — The Makabayan bloc is urging the House of Representatives to investigate the killing of Pilar, Capiz municipal administrator John Heredia, a former journalist, which they say “highlights the culture of impunity and worsening state of press freedom in the country.”
“It is imperative for members of Congress, as representatives of our people, to defend the rights of our people and check on excesses and violations committed against them, especially in this time of crisis,” the six-member bloc said in House Resolution No. 1740.
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Heredia, who previously served as director of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and was the first and longest sitting chairman of the union’s Capiz chapter, was shot several times by an unidentified assailant in Barangay Lawa-an, Roxas City a day before World Press Freedom Day.
This was not the first attack on the Heredia family. In 2019, Heredia’s wife, lawyer Criselda Heredia, survived an ambush on her and her daughter.
Citing the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), the progressive lawmakers said Criselda had been red-tagged in posters distributed in Iloilo City before the ambush.
The lawmakers also noted that there have been numerous attacks on activists and progressive organizations in the Western Visayas region prior to Heredia’s killing.
READ: ‘Shameless act of state terror’: Groups condemn attack on yet another rights lawyer
The Department of Justice’s task force on extrajudicial killings will be keeping its hands off Heredia’s case, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday.
However, he referred the former journalist’s killing to the Presidential Task Force on Media Security. — Xave Gregorio