Gov’t Scored
in Mindanao Press Protests
‘Journalists have
become the next targets of the enemies of democracy’
“Journalists cannot
remain truly independent in a system and under an administration that
favors militarism, condones criminal and corrupt activities of the police
and the military, and is intolerant to legitimate struggle and advocacy.”
– Network for the Advancement of Civil Liberties
BY CHERYLL FIEL
Bulatlat
Photo by Medel Hernani
DAVAO CITY – When
around 200 journalists and media workers took to the streets in this city
on Nov. 17, their message – justice for their slain colleagues – took on a
more forceful, although ironic, meaning. This city, after all, has become
infamous around the world for the summary executions of dozens of people,
many of them children, suspected of being criminals.
The irony grew
thicker when Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, through City Administrator Wendell
Avisado, called the killing of journalists -- including Davaoeño
photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag, who was killed in Jolo on Nov. 12 –
“senseless” and promised to help in finding justice to the fallen
journalists.
This uneasy
confluence of events, made more pronounced by the rare show of force by
Davao’s journalists, drove home an important, though largely neglected,
point as the country’s journalists get murdered one after the other: that
these killings are taking place in the context of the breakdown of law and
order all over the land, particularly in this city.
Carlos Conde, the
secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
(NUJP), which organized and led the indignation rally here, emphasized
this point during his speech toward the end of the rally.
“Journalists are
being attacked not just because they are journalists,” he said. “They are
attacked because the Filipino people are being attacked.”
Conde denounced the
serious violations of human rights and civil liberties nationwide, as well
as the victimization of poor Filipinos by forces of the state. “In an
environment of violence, fear and intimidation that target the Filipino
people, journalists have become the next targets of the enemies of
democracy,” he said.
He urged the
government to show concrete actions, not token ones such as the creation
of task forces, in dealing with the murders of journalists.
Carolyn Arguillas,
chief editor of MindaNews, the Davao-based news agency where Lumawag had
worked, said during Lumawag’s funeral on Friday that these media killings
only show the extent of the breakdown of law and order in the country.
She called on the
authorities to solve not just Lumawag’s killing but the summary executions
of people as well in Jolo, Sulu, a land sometimes known as a turf of
kidnap-for-ransom groups.
The protest rally
here on Wednesday was the largest in recent memory. Journalists from all
over Mindanao traveled from as far away as Zambaonga City, Pagadian City,
Cagayan de Oro City, General Santos, Compostela Valley, to join the march.
They braved the
midday sun. By noontime, representatives of various media organizations
joining the march took turns expressing their outrage against the killing
of Lumawag and the others.
“What’s wrong with
taking a picture of the sunset?” Froilan Gallardo, who spoke on behalf of
MindaNews, asked as he denounced the killers for snuffing the life of the
26-year-old photojournalist.
The Cagayan de Oro
Press Club (COPC) also echoed calls of justice, saying the death of Gene
Boyd sent a chilling message to the media. They expressed exasperation
over the failure by government to solve these killings. “But we have yet
to see clear manifestations of sincerity and concrete actions on the part
of the national government and its agencies. What we have been getting are
mere assurances,” a statement by the COPC read.
Giovanni Aportadera,
president of the local chapter of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng
Pilipinas (KBP), said he hoped that the show of unity among media people
here would be sustained until justice is served.
Various groups from
the Philippines and other countries have also denounced the killings, 10
so far this year and 59 since 1986.
“The government of
the Philippines can no longer stand by and let these journalists be
slaughtered in record numbers," said Christopher Warren, president of the
Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists. "Things are going
from bad to worse: the Government needs to act immediately to stop the
killings," he said, adding that “we fully support our colleagues in the
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in their protest marches
throughout the Philippines."
Boy Cabrido,
president of the Press Photographers of the Philippines, issued a
statement: “The killing of a photojournalist has stirred up great anger in
the ranks of our colleagues. You just don't do that. Gene Boyd is not part
of the fight, he was an observer and recorder working for the greater
good.”
A new group called
the Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom issued a statement comparing
today’s killings to those during the martial-law years. “We cannot help
but compare the post-1986 media atmosphere with the martial law years,
when journalists were relentlessly pursued by the state, and many of them
landed behind bars and not a few were killed or abducted, for exposing the
fascist regime’s atrocities against the people. Journalists were among the
first to be arrested following the Sept. 21, 1972 declaration of martial
law.”
It continued: “That
journalists continue to be attacked mercilessly 18 years after Martial Law
raises questions as to whether press freedom does exist today and what
kind of democracy was restored in 1986.”
Bobby M. Reyes,
founder and chairman emeritus of the Media Breakfast Club of Los Angeles,
emailed Sen. Aquilino Pimentel to request a Senate investigation into the
killings. “Can we please request your good office to initiate a Blue
Ribbon Committee investigation of the violent acts being committed against
the members of the Filipino Fourth Estate?” Reyes wrote.
The Davao-based
Network for the Advancement of Civil Liberties, which recently launched
its “End Repression” campaign here, said: “The daring assassination of
crusading journalists occur at a time when summary executions of petty
criminals occur, along with the massacres of farming villages,
maltreatment of civilians, violent dispersal of workers’ picketline as in
the case of the Hacienda Luisita, the abduction of Moro leaders and the
large-scale displacement of Moro communities.”
The killings of
journalists and political activists and ordinary civilians, NACL said,
“are not separate and unconnected. The present system has bred the searing
conditions that perpetuate these senseless murders and disrespect for
civil liberties. Journalists cannot remain truly independent in a system
and under an administration that favors militarism, condones criminal and
corrupt activities of the police and the military, and is intolerant
against legitimate struggle and advocacy.”
Rep. Joel Virador of
Bayan Muna, who is from this city, said “the mounting unresolved cases of
gross human rights violations committed against the marginalized sectors
and the media under the present government only indicate that virtual
martial law is here."
The Initiatives for
Peace in Mindanao (InPeace Mindanao) condemned the killing of Lumawag,
saying that his murder highlights the growing violence faced by Mindanao
journalists under the Arroyo administration. It noted that Lumawag was the
fourth Mindanaoan in the 10 journalists killed this year and the 10th
Mindanaoan in the 23 journalists killed since President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo became president.
“We believe there is
a direct correlation between escalating violence against mediapersons and
growing summary executions in Mindanao. When the press is attacked with
impunity, it is reflective of the general breakdown of respect for the
human rights of ordinary citizens especially those who are poor and
underprivileged. And under such a condition, it is the State that should
take full accountability because it has failed to perform its supposedly
inherent duty to protect and uphold human rights,” said Bishop Felixberto
Calang, convenor of InPeace Mindanao.
In a pooled editorial
published by at least three national dailies and various local newspapers
on Nov. 16 and 17, the NUJP said “the escalating attacks against
journalists are usually the result of the stepped-up assault against civil
liberties. Indeed, intimidating the press ensures the continued violation
of civil liberties. Our horrible experience with the Marcos dictatorship
bears this out.” Bulatlat
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