Eternal vigilance

To be fair, it's good that cops are doing some progress -- or at least it seems -- in the case of Roger Panizal. But the resolution of the case is far from over. We have to keep vigilant.

Policeman and two other suspects arrested for attempted murder of tabloid reporter
Source: Reporters Without Borders

The police announced today that three people have been arrested for the attempted murder of reporter Roger Panizal of the tabloid newspaper Tiktik on 14 August in Valenzuela, near Manila. One of the detainees is a police officer. Another is suspected of being the mastermind.

Panizal was shot in the neck and hand and spent several days close to death before beginning to recover. Nonetheless he was able, from his hospital bed, to identify some known as George Demonyo ("George the Devil") as his assailant.

At the start of August, President Gloria Arroyo gave the police and justice department a 10-week deadline to solve ten cases of journalists and left-wing activists who have been murdered, but few arrests have so far been made.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the security forces to redouble their efforts in order to put an end to the climate of violence that has made the Philippines the second-most dangerous country in the world for journalists, after Iraq.