MANILA - The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) is calling on president-elect Rodrigo Duterte to brush up his knowledge on the state of media killings in the Philippines.

NUJP Chair Ryan Rosauro said in an interview with ANC's Dateline Philippines, he hopes the incoming administration makes good on its promise of putting up a special task force to focus on media killings.

He said he hopes media organizations can meet with this task force to "sit down and brief them, the task force, on the state of media killings in the country."

"Hopefully, this task force should be able to brief the incoming president about the totality of the situation of media killings in the country so that he will be able to, having that understanding already, he would be able to say and act accordingly with respect to this issue," he said.

In a press conference on Tuesday evening, Duterte said he believes journalists in the Philippines are killed because they are corrupt. This, after he was asked how his administration would solve media killings.

He said the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press cannot protect a journalist from getting killed especially if he is a “son of a b****.”

“Kaya namamatay kasi karamihan diyan nabayaran na. They take sides or sobrahan ang atake, getting personal,” Duterte said.

READ: Duterte: Journalists are killed for being corrupt

Though Rosauro did not deny that there are journalists who are on the take, he maintained that "it does not justify the killing of the journalists who are perceived to be corrupt."

"Our fear is that these peoples can be emboldened that when reportage has been hurting them, when reportage about their alleged involvement in these shenanigans are already hurting them, they can no longer take it, they might take the cue from the statements made last night," he said.

Rosauro also finds Duterte's statement that most slain journalists corrupt unfair. He said many journalists were, in fact, murdered because they reported on corruption.

"Karamihan sa mga napapaslang na journalist were going against corruption, were going against malfeasance in government. And the incoming president should be apprised on that, should be conscious of that," he said.

CRUSADING JOURNALISTS

Rosauro cited the killings of two veteran journalists, Marlene Esperat and Gerry Ortega, who were both shot dead after controversial exposés.

READ: NUJP blasts Duterte's statement on journalist killings

Esperat started the exposé now known as the "Fertilizer Fund Scam," where funds for farm fertilizers were diverted to the presidential campaign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004.

Esperat was killed in her own home in 2005.

Ortega, meanwhile, was a medical doctor who frequently accused former Palawan Governor Joel T. Reyes and his brother, ex-Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, of corruption during his local radio show.

He was shot at the back outside a clothing store in Palawan in 2011.

Ortega's family also lamented Duterte's statement, saying that "kind of speech is alarming because without due process, it casts absolute judgment on all murdered journalists, including those who were killed for telling the truth."

Ortega, the family said, was "killed for his courage and integrity," and was "murdered precisely because he was honorable."

"He fought for social justice. He stood up against mining in Palawan. He exposed corruption in the provincial government, which included the misuse of billions of pesos from the Malampaya funds," the family said.

STILL DANGEROUS

While he urged the president-elect to review his statement on Tuesday evening, Rosauro also recognized that the problem of impunity was not solved either by the outgoing administration, with some of the top officials being "dismissive about the problem of media killings."

He cited Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma's reaction to the report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) that identified the Philippines as world's second most dangerous place for journalists.

"You have Secretary Coloma saying that it’s just a matter of statistics, that the number of journalists killed in the Philippines shot up because of the Ampatuan Massacre, where there were 32 media workers killed," he said.

According to Rosauro, if the account of the 32 slain media personnel were removed from IFJ's computation, the average would still be at four--two points down from the average of six with the 32 included in the count.

"Whether four or six, these numbers are appalling. That’s really the lukewarm policy appreciation of the problem of media killings, the problem of impunity in the country," he said.