|
|
Terrorizing
the Campus Journalist
Lest
press freedom groups forget it, violations of freedom of expression and of
information are taking place not only in the mainstream media.
Campus-based journalists – they who in trying times like the Marcos
dictatorship, carried on the fight for press freedom through thick and
thin – are similarly threatened. Attacks on the campus press are often
more violent - and also subtle - and yet do not earn the attention that
similar cases of repression in the mainstream press draw.
By
Ronalyn Olea
Bulatlat.com
International
press freedom watchdogs, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres and
the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have declared
the Philippines as one of the most dangerous places in the world for
journalists. Indeed, since this has been the case since the Marcos dictatorship
muzzled the press.
To
illustrate, last month, a radio broadcaster was gunned down. More recently, two
Cagayan de Oro reporters were arrested and detained for libel.
But
even the Philippine campus press is not spared from similar assaults. And there
have been clear indications that government authorities are behind these
attacks.
Under
the Macapagal-Arroyo government, a student
journalist
has been killed, two abducted and another
arrested.
LikeEdgar Damalerio’s case, justice has yet to be served for the murder of
Benjaline Hernandez. On
April 5 last year, Hernandez was killed
by
elements of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical
Unit
(Cafgu) led by a sergeant of the Army's 7th
Airborne
Battalion while conducting a research on the
impacts
of peace process among the peasants in Arakan Valley, North Cotabato in southern
Philippines.
When killed, Hernandez
was only 22 and then the
vice president for Mindanao of
the
College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP)
and
deputy secretary general for Southern Mindanao of
the
human rights alliance Karapatan.
Military authorities claimed
the incident was a
legitimate
encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA).
However,
reports by the Commission on Human Rights
(CHR)
showed Hernandez was summarily executed. Also,
the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the victim was negative of
gunpowder, showing that she was unarmed at
the time of the killing contrary to military claims she was an NPA member.
Until
now, the perpetrators are on the loose.
Abductions
On
Nov. 1 last year, CEGP incumbent vice president for
Visayas
Loyd Wilson Sato was abducted by unidentified
men. Sato
would testify later that he was grilled for six hours by what appeared to be
military intelligence men. He was also called a “terrorist” and was warned
against
speaking before rallies outside the
military
detachment in Cebu. Before being freed, his arm was slashed with a
Swiss
knife.
Eleven
days later in Central Luzon, Ma. Cecilia San Luis was arrested
on
allegation that she is an NPA fighter. San Luis,
former
CEGP chair for the region, was writing
an
article regarding the peasants’ struggle for land
reform
in San Ildelfonso, Bulacan.
On
April 21, Virgilio Catoy II, editor of Southern
Tagalog
Exposure, was abducted along with slain human
rights
leaders Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in
Naujan,
Oriental Mindoro.
Catoy
was beaten, hogtied and made to plead for his
life.
Col.
Jovito Palparan Jr., alleged mastermind of the
abduction and killings,
was waiting for confirmation
of
his promotion to brigadier general before the
incident
happened.
“Terrorist”
tag
All
over the country, school campuses remain under close watch by the military,
reminiscent of martial law 20 years ago. Military authorities, using their
student intelligence network – often members of the ROTC – conduct
surveillance on both militant students and faculty. Writers
from the Philippine Collegian (UP Diliman),
Manila
Collegian (UP
Manila), Catalyst (PUP) and
Tandem
(University of Northern Philippines-Vigan) have
confirmed military surveillance
inside their campuses. Catalyst’s office
was
ransacked once, a former intelligence agent himself admitted.
The CEGP, as it continues to uphold its militant tradition and campus press
advocacy, has recently been tagged as a “terrorist,” emboldening military
and police authorities as well as school administrators to take reprisal
measures against this group of editors – whose ranks include the cream of the
crop in college. No less than National
Security Adviser Roilo Golez slandered the
CEGP
recently by accusing it as a front organization of the
Communist
Party of the Philippines. This accusation appears to be no
different
from the articles written in the NAD
Courier,
publication of the anti-communist and pro-American National Alliance for
Democracy,
calling other groups including CEGP as “terrorist.”
Threats
to campus press freedom and other democratic rights of students do not only come
from the military, however. Just like in previous years, student
journalists are threatened by school administrators against publishing critical
commentaries and articles opposing certain policies.
Currently facing
libel charges filed by school authorities are the editors of Budyong,
student publication
of the Bicol University’s Institute of Communications and
Cultural
Studies in Legaspi City, for exposing the
anomalies
of two professors in the university.
Editors
of The Kingfisher, student publication of
Southern
Luzon Polytechnic College, were prevented
from
graduating last semester for coming out with a lampoon
issue.
Last
month, Atenews, student publication of Ateneo de
Davao
University, has been ordered to cease all its
operations.
School authorities say the student paper
cannot
exist without a moderator. In the first place,
it
is the administration that has set stringent
policies
on the selection and approval of the paper’s
moderator.
Meanwhile,
The Bedan, student publication of San Beda
College,
may not see print next semester as the school
officials
imposed non-mandatory payment of publication
fee.
Still
closed are the student papers The National of
the
National University, Pintig ng Diwa of Philippine
School
for Business Administration-Quezon City and
Paulinian
of Saint Paul College-Quezon City.
If
cases of looting of publication’s
funds,
censorship, meddling by advisers, suspension/expulsion of student writers and
other
forms
of harassment are included, the list of cases of repression against the campus
press could go on.
A leader of CEGP recalls former
President Ferdinand Marcos as calling the
campus
press the “mosquito press.” Seen from today’s situation, the campus
press, continues
to
inflict irritation on the powers-that-be, so
uncomfortable
they retaliate and threaten with impunity, the CEGP leader says.
Indeed,
the struggle for genuine press freedom remains
to
be an uphill fight. Bulatlat.com
Back
to top
We
want to know what you think of this article.
|
