Delegates to the second Asia Pacific regional conference of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters held recently in Bangalore, India unanimously passed a resolution condemning the killings of working journalists in the Philippines.

“AMARC-Asia Pacific condemns in the strongest terms possible the culture of impunity in the Philippines, particularly the killing of broadcasters and journalists,” said the resolution introduced by Filipino community broadcaster Raymund Villanueva of Kodao Productions. 

The resolution was adopted February 23 or three months after the November 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province in Southern Philippines which killed 58 civilians, including dozens of journalists.

The principal suspects in the massacre are scions of the powerful Ampatuan political clan which is said to be close to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Villanueva and Kodao are themselves victim of political persecution. The pro-Arroyo owner of a radio station pulled the plug on Kodao’s award-winning program “Ngayon na, Bayan” in 2006 when Arroyo declared a state of emergency. 

The resolution said that “AMARC-AP shall petition AMARC International as well as all its other regional groupings to formulate and implement an active campaign to defend human rights in the Philippines in close coordination with members in the Philippines as soon as possible.”

Known in its French/Spanish acronym AMARC, the group has about 3,000 members and associates from community broadcasters in 110 countries.

AMARC-AP’s Bangalore meeting gathered 300 members from the Asia-Pacific, Africa, North America and Latin America and the Caribbean 

AMARC is the latest among the world’s journalists’ organizations to assail the Philippine government over the unresolved and continuing slays of journalists and broadcasters.

In its latest report, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the Philippines tops the list of most dangerous places for working journalists.

The International Federation of Journalists, and the Reporters Without Borders have also denounced the unresolved slays of Filipino journalists and expressed solidarity to their Philippine counterparts.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan (Rights) have documented more than 1,000 cases of extrajudicial killings, mostly of activists and critics of the Arroyo government, as well as hundreds of incidents of enforced disappearances.

Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, has also hit the Arroyo government over the slays after undertaking a mission to the Philippines and speaking to survivors and relatives of victims and human rights organizations, as well as the authorities.