User:Crtew/Armando Pace

Armando Pace, a.k.a. "Rachman", (ca. 1955 – July 18, 2006), a Filipino radio commentator for the Radyo Ukay DXDS in Digos City, Davao del Sur, Philippines, targeted corruption among local politicians and drug trafficking., was killed and one of the hitmen involved was successfully convicted.

Personal
Armando Pace was born around 1955 in the Philippines.

Career
Armando was a block-time commentator on Radyo Ukay DXDS. Block timing is a practice whereby the host buys a time slot and is responsible for its content as well as funding the cost through means such as advertising. His program was called "Ukadyang," which means to turn things upside down or to search. Pace was known for radio commentaries that were aimed at local politicians and about corruption, as well as the illegal drug trade. He was critical of local politicians and drug trafficking on the island of Mindanao. He billed himself as the "most sued" broadcaster for libel but most of those cases were dismissed. He we with DXDS for eight months at the time of his murder.

Death
Armando Pace left the DXDS radio station and was followed by a motorcycle with two men. Pace was shot and killed as he was driving home on a motorcycle on Rizel Avenue in Digos City, Davao del Sur, 610 miles southeast of Manila. The culprits tailed Pace and shot him in the back of the head and the chest. Pace died shortly after arriving at the hospital. The murder happened about 1 p.m. in the afternoon. The two men had escaped. A witness was able to identify at least one of the hitmen.

Filipino authorities created a task force to apprehend the assailants who killed Armando Pace as they did with later journalists. Skeptics, however, have claimed the task forces have never identified the "masterminds" behind the killers. The task force determined that Pace was in fact killed as a result of his journalism. As a result of the investigation, Joy “Tungol” Anticamara was arrested and later convicted of murder on March 24, 2009, by Judge Albert Axalan. Anticamara received a 17-year jail sentence for Pace's murder.

Context
The Philippines ranks third in the world for the fourth straight year for impunity, which is where journalists are killed regularly, and the murders have remained unsolved.

Impact
Between 1986 and 2014, 168 journalists have been killed in the Philippines. Two others from those 168 journalists were from the same media group as pace, namely Nestor Bedolido and Samuel Oliverio. At least one the suspects involved with the Armando Pace case was also tied to the Samuel Oliverio case.

Reactions
Koïchiro Matsuura, director-general of UNESCO, said,"The number of journalists assassinated in the Philippines is very troubling. Beyond the loss of human lives, these murders represent a serious attack on press freedom, which is essential for democracy and rule of law. It is essential that these murders be investigated thoroughly, and that their perpetrators be brought to justice and punished. I call on the authorities of the Philippines to ensure that crimes against journalists do not go unpunished."

Reporters Without Borders stated, "The police should not rule out the possibility that Pace's murder was linked to his work as a journalist. A very thorough investigation is needed to establish who was responsible and what their motives were. If it turns out he was killed on account of what he said on the air, the authorities will be indirectly to blame because of the climate of impunity they have allowed to take hold in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao."

After the investigation and trial, chair of Task Force 211, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, issued a statement about the conviction of Anticamara: "This is the second conviction among the cases Task Force 211 has been monitoring since we started operation in November 2007. The conviction of Joy Anticamara shall hopefully become an effective deterrent to the spate of media killings."