The pursuit of justice and accountability cannot stop with ex-Philippine president’s arrest.
By BEH LIH YI
Community to Protect Journalists
First published on Nikkei Asia on April 9, 2025
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is now in The Hague awaiting his next court hearing in September. His arrest by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity charges was not only a gigantic step toward justice — but also a triumph for journalism.
Globally, at a time when press freedom is under unprecedented assault and major democracies are in retreat, the arrest reaffirms the pivotal role of the media in defending justice and democracy. Without journalists holding power to account, there will be no end to impunity.
Domestically, it is a vindication for the press who were treated with hostility during Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency for daring to report on the senseless killings that went on in the Philippines, as bodies piled up in cities and on the side streets in his “war on drugs.”
For their reporting, the media were relentlessly targeted and intimidated. The firebrand leader called journalists “spies” and “sons of bitches,” saying they are not exempt from assassination. But the journalists persisted and persevered — along with human rights activists, lawyers, priests and community organizers who refused to be silenced.
The quest for justice and accountability, however, must not end with Duterte’s arrest.
It was a step in the right direction for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to work with Interpol in handing over his predecessor to the ICC. He must now seize on the momentum to further right past wrongs, by delivering justice for many other victims who were targeted by his predecessor.
In 2023, about a year after Marcos took over, I was on a mission to the Southeast Asian country to assess the press freedom situation for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), where I lead the organization’s work in Asia.
The journalists and publishers we met said they breathed a collective sigh of relief after Duterte left office, and that they were able to get back to more in-depth reporting, rather than simply defending themselves. Marcos’s comparatively milder tone toward the press marked “a better environment from hell,” as one senior journalist put it.
Last year, for the first time in two decades, the CPJ recorded no work-related killings of journalists in the Philippines, a country long known as one of the world’s most dangerous places for media members.
Still, much work remains. Journalist killings, the worst form of censorship, are only one of the indicators to measure a country’s media environment and any change in tone must be accompanied by substantive actions and reforms.
The Philippines remains a dangerous and difficult place for journalists, with 96 killed in direct connection with their work since 1992. Impunity is deeply entrenched, and murderers of journalists are rarely brought to justice.
Even when they are, the pace of justice is slow. For example, in the 2011 murder of radio journalist Gerry Ortega, after years of persistent advocacy, a fugitive ex-governor– who was alleged to have ordered Ortega’s killing — surrendered last year and the trial is ongoing.
Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and Rappler, the online news outlet she co-founded, were slapped with 10 criminal cases — from cyber libel to tax evasion — during the Duterte administration and the journalist faces up to 100 years in jail if convicted on all counts. She has so far won eight out of the 10 cases, but two are still ongoing.
In the final months of Duterte’s tenure, his government ordered 27 websites to be blocked, including news sites Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly. Bulatlat regained access after it won a temporary reprieve through an injunction, but its fight to nullify the blocking order is not over in court.
On that trip to the Philippines, I also saw young community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio in court, where she is on trial for illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing. Escorted by heavily armed guards, her eyes lit up — even behind a face mask — at the sight of supporters.
Raised by a soft-spoken, hard-working single mother of three, Cumpio, a petite 26-year-old, has spent more than half a decade in jail in Tacloban City in the eastern Philippines, as her trial moves slowly through the courts. U.N. special envoy Irene Khan has expressed dismay at Cumpio’s prolonged detention.
The journalist told the court recently that authorities had planted the weapons that led to her arrest, a pattern that is consistent with accusations of fabricated charges faced by other victims of “red-tagging,” a tactic widely used by the Duterte government to target critics.
Midterm elections are due to take place in the Philippines on May 12, with analysts viewing them as a battle between the allies of Marcos and Duterte, as a political alliance the two sides had forged falls apart.
However, Marcos can show that Duterte’s arrest is not only about a feud between two political dynasties. He can go a step further by doing more to restore the country’s once-proud tradition of press freedom — and end the injustice for those who have suffered long enough.
Beh Lih Yi leads the Asia program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, a global organization dedicated to defending press freedom and the right of journalists to report safely.
