The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines hails the National Prosecution Service, headed by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, for doing the honorable thing in protesting the resolution of acting justice secretary Alberto Agra absolving Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan of the multiple charges filed against them over the Nov. 23 Ampatuan massacre.

The prosecutors are worried that "the resolution will all the more convince a long skeptical public that our criminal justice system is impotent when the accused are politically influential."

Indeed, skeptical is an understatement when it comes to the government's dismal record of dispensing justice. If anything, Agra's scandalous resolution was not unexpected. What was unexpected, was the suddenness and the brazenness with which it was issued.

The prosecutors noted that the resolution was issued Friday, just a day after Agra assured some of the victims' families that he had not yet decided on Zaldy Ampatuan's petition for review. It was also the very same day Zaldy and other members of the clan were being transferred from detention in Mindanao to Camp Bagong Diwa.

This tends to confirm information that the resolution was apparently intended to prevent their transfer and that the very man sworn to uphold justice, was complicit to this attempt to subvert justice. And, of course, that Agra would never have committed such a brazen act without the knowledge of or, most probably, order from his ultimate superior, she who is so beholden to the Ampatuans, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Yet, while we laud our prosecutors for this undoubtedly courageous stance and assure them of our unqualified support in this cause, we also stress that this is not the first time the head of the justice department has "dishonor(ed) the primary reason for which our institution exists and its very name: the Department of Justice."

Indeed, the long list of murdered journalists whose deaths continue to cry out for justice attests to the official apathy and, in many instances, outright government hostility toward media that have nurtured the culture of impunity in this country and emboldened those who wish to impose the ultimate form of censorship – death – on those who persist in exercising the freedom of the press and free expression.

We, therefore, also urge Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano and the National Prosecution Service to exercise as much zeal in pursuing justice for all our other slain colleagues and all others who have become victims of a nine-year bloodbath under an administration that has time and again flouted our laws and trampled on our rights.