Commentary

Media Gag and Creeping Fascism

There’s all the more reason for the Philippine press to not only fight this renewed attack on this vital institution but to be vigilant along with the rest of the people against a creeping fascism that cloaks itself in “anti-terrorism.”

By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat

Abel Ladera, a city councilor of Tarlac City, was buying jeep spare parts at a hardware  in the city at high noon of March 3 when he was gunned down by a single shot fired from a van parked a few meters away. The suspect, according to the councilor’s family: the military. Well-known in Tarlac as a Bayan Muna (BM) leader and a shoo-in for the next mayoralty race, Ladera was the ninth martyr following the massacre of seven farm workers at Hacienda Luisita last Nov. 16 and the assassination of a peasant leader three weeks later. All killings were blamed by the victim’s kin and cause-oriented groups on the armed forces’ Northern Luzon (Nolcom) command.

The day Ladera was buried, Romy Sanchez, secretary general of the militant group Bayan in Ilocos and also BM coordinator was shot and killed in Baguio City. Suspect: military. The city is within the military jurisdiction of Nolcom, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr. said.

The military has been blamed for the killing of 12 activists and organizers in Central Luzon over the past two months. Five others remain missing in the same region, including Dan Macapagal, former Bayan secretary general in Nueva Ecija province. In Quezon province, four members of Gabriela, a women’s alliance, were abducted and later slapped with charges of sedition and illegal possession of firearms.

Elsewhere in Catarman, Northern Samar, in central Philippines an armored personnel carrier (APC) of the 63^rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army was parked outside the offices of BM. Beside the APC were 30 soldiers in full battle gear. The presence of the soldiers was apparently aimed at harassing the BM members and it came on the heels of a warning by newly-installed Eastern Visayas commander, Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan that he would stop mass protests in the region in six months. Palparan had been the object of investigation by Congress and the justice department based on several complaints of military atrocities in Oriental Mindoro.

It would take several pages to list recent reported cases of military abuse all over the country that have victimized in particular unarmed progressive leaders, activists and other civilians tagged by government as “terrorists”. The point that is being stressed here however is the fact it is the same military – along with the police institution – that is now calling for the prosecution of media establishments and journalists who provide print space and airtime to “terrorist groups” particularly the holdup-for-ransom syndicate, Abu Sayyaf, and the ideologically-driven New People’s Army (NPA).

Anti-terrorism

The call for this specific press censorship, echoed later by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her press secretary, Ignacio Bunye, was made as part of the anti-terrorism bills which are now being resurrected in Congress. Among the authors of the various anti-terror bills are Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief who had been charged with the Kuratong Baleleng rubout killings; Sen. Alfredo Lim, a former Manila police chief; Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, son of the ousted and now detained president Joseph Estrada; and Rep. Roilo Golez, a former Navy officer and National Security Adviser.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) immediately shot down the proposal, reminding government that it has no “blanket authority to define what is anti-people or anti-state, considering that it has come under fire being just that that, anti-people.” The NUJP has also one particular reason for opposing the threat of media gag: Media has been muzzled enough given the series of killings victimizing journalists and broadcasters over which – despite countless media dialogs with police and armed forces generals – not a single case has been solved. Many of the killings involved military and police elements.

Although the move affects the press in particular, it will practically put the last nail for tearing away freedom of expression that the constitution itself enshrines. The same constitution provides that the citizens’ bill of rights will stay even in an emergency situation. Described as actually a form of political repression, the anti-terror bills have been opposed by civil libertarians and human rights groups for using the pretext of “anti-terrorism” in order to silence government critics, eliminate all types of political dissent and reinstitute a fascist state.

But just to emphasize one point, too: It would have been uncharacteristic for the military particularly AFP deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan not to have pressed for press censorship. Freedom of the press is beyond the comprehension of the military – and, for that matter, of the civilian structure that is supposed to command it – given that its reactionary mindset defines “national security” in terms of guns and bullets and the purging of all forms of dissent. The media gag that the military now seeks is just an echo of its past.

Fascist tradition

The fascist tradition, which sees every criticism and activism as the shadow of communism and “terrorism”, dates back to the time the U.S. colonialists organized the military to crush peasant rebellions, to the Marcos dictatorship that institutionalized the AFP as a power by itself and now in its continuing role as the surrogate army of the United States both in its “war on terror” and in support of a discredited puppet government.

Time and time again, the military establishment has proven itself as government’s machinery for resisting meaningful and comprehensive reforms. In many respects, the military has been tolerated by the civilian government in usurping more powers thus increasing the perception that it is the military that calls the shots.

Aside from being involved in human rights violations, the military has protected the interests of landlords and warlords against tenants’ and farm workers’ demands for land distribution and decent wages. It is currently engaged in militarizing upland communities to pave the way for foreign mining exploration and production. It has deepened its involvement in electoral exercises through campaigns to demonize and then use violence against progressive political parties.

It continues to undermine the country’s national sovereignty by supporting greater U.S. armed intervention in the country, its partnership with the U.S. military in war exercises and by acting as the pressure point in peace talks coercing both the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to capitulate.

Yet despite the reactionary role that it plays, the AFP cannot even cleanse itself of a systemic corruption that continues to sap its fighting capability and demoralize its rank-and-file soldiers.

When, aside from sowing terror the military begins to threaten the press to censor itself or else, then this should alarm the journalists, whether commercial or the alternative mainstream. There’s all the more reason for the Philippine press to not only fight this renewed attack on this vital institution but to be vigilant along with the rest of the people against a creeping fascism that cloaks itself in “anti-terrorism.” Bulatlat

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