Finally, Filipinos Get on Indymedia

The road toward an Indymedia in the Philippines was not easy to trek. Full of twists and turns, the initiators of this project relied on Filipinos’ long experience with consensus-based alliance work, patience and daring.

By the Indymedia-QC Collective
http://qc.indymedia.org
http://quezoncity.indymedia.org
Posted by Bulatlat.com

For people’s movements across the world, especially those active in the fight against imperialist war and plunder, one website has become well-known as the  website or websites for alternative (read: non-corporate) views and news.

Indymedia, short for Independent Media Center, presents itself as “a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage” and as “a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.”

Its prestige in the worldwide anti-imperialist movement has continuously grown from its role as the alternative media that covered the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO). The principled and militant protests – now dubbed as the Battle of Seattle – sabotaged the imperialists’ design for that meeting.

Indymedia has since followed and joined mass movements in protests against successive meetings of global imperialist agencies and formations like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, APEC, ADB, World Social Forum and the like.

Today, Indymedia is composed of several dozens of Independent Media Centers around the world, with each center having its own mission statement, managing its own finances and making its own decisions through its own processes.

One of these is Indymedia-QC, which stands for Independent Media Center in Quezon City, the Philippines’ former capital, most populated city and headquarters of the country’s many non-government and people’s organizations.

What’s in it for us?

The Indymedia-QC’s objective is pretty straightforward: “Media for, by and of the Filipino people: This is the long term mission of Indymedia-QC. As such, it shall chronicle, push forward and help win the various local, national and international struggles for meaningful change. It shall be for the people or it is nothing.”

The main feature of Indymedia-QC and each local center is the newswire. It enables any interested individual or group to publish a story, photo, video or audio on any of the broad range of issues featured by the site.

“The newswire is useful to any person or group who wants to speak out and be heard on the issue of imperialist plunder and war. They could just click the Publish link and they will be brought to a simple form. He or she could just fill up the fields and finally click the Publish button at the bottom of the page,” explained Alexander Martin Remollino, current spokesperson of the Indymedia-QC.

He added that “such an easy, fast and open publication policy should encourage more Filipinos to make Indymedia-QC their own media.”

Depending on the importance of the posts on the newswire, the Indymedia-QC collective may decide to spin off a feature article for publication on the site’s main page.

Articles published on Indymedia-QC’s main page are syndicated on the global Indymedia newswire and Oceania syndicate.

“Indymedia-QC should be maximized by NGOs and POs who want to amplify their statements and activities across the world. By publishing on the newswire, they provide Indymedia-QC with fresh content while gaining exposure in the global network,” explains Edwin Licaros, an NGO worker based in Quezon City and a member of the Indymedia-QC collective.

He adds that: “It is also open to all people, including media outlets or media practitioners looking for outlets where alternative or pro-people views and news are welcome.”

Remollino likewise revealed that audio files of episodes of the award-winning radio program Ngayon Na Bayan! may soon be posted on Indymedia-QC. “In response to requests, this may be the subject of a future meeting with Kodao Productions which produce the radio show,” he says.

Due to its broad appeal, Indymedia-QC has found dozens of “affinity groups” or supporting organizations including the Philippine Punk Movement, www.pinoypride.org (a community website for lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered persons), the online newsmagazine Bulatlat.com, the youth site Tinig.com, the propagandista yahoogroup, the Fax Operators Forum and a plethora of POs and NGOs led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance).

Remollino adds that Indymedia-QC likewise hopes to inspire activists and alternative journalists elsewhere in the country to form their own centers. “It is not farfetched that we may see a blossoming of Indymedias across the country. We hope that soon enough, we would have an Indymedia Pilipinas site which syndicates articles from future sites in Baguio, Cebu and Mindanao.”

Reports reaching Indymedia-QC reveal that some alternative journalists in the island of Mindanao have started to talk about the possibility of setting up their own Indymedia.

History

The road toward an Indymedia in the Philippines was not easy to trek. Full of twists and turns, the initiators of this project relied on Filipinos’ long experience with consensus-based alliance work, patience and daring.

On Oct. 1, 2002, a group of Filipinos represented by Tonyo Cruz began the arduous work toward IMC-Pilipinas which would later be renamed as Indymedia-QC. 

Cruz, then public information officer of Bayan, explained in his application that “it is high time for the Philippines and Filipinos.” 

He said that Indymedia Pilipinas would enable Filipinos: 1) To document what the Filipino people are undertaking to break free from the yoke of imperialist domination in all spheres of their national life; 2) To expose the brutal impact of imperialist globalization on the people’s rights and livelihood especially those of workers and peasants; 3) To present the various forms of mass actions used;  and 4) To highlight the role of pro-people technology (particularly open-source operating system and software) in cutting down the monopoly of an elite few on information and communications technology.

Another applicant by the name of Jong Pairez also joined the Indymedia Pilipinas project.

Months later, Cruz formed the imc-pilipinas mailing list and started to convene small meetings and consultations. Twenty-four NGOs and POs were in the initial list of groups supporting Indymedia-Pilipinas.

Setting up a local Indymedia is normally easy and fast. Any interested group or groups may band together to form a collective or crew, draft a mission statement and some Principles of Unity, an editorial policy and, from there, go through a two-step procedure on new-imc and imc-process.  These aim to ensure that new Indymedias would fit like a cog in the huge and wide Indymedia network.

This easy and fast rules went to naught, no thanks to Pairez and his crew who dubbed themselves “anarchists” and identified themselves as “friends” of the pseudo-progressive group Sanlakas.

From the time Indymedia-Pilipinas sought a roll-call of its members, Pairez consistently and ceaselessly attacked Cruz and his comrades from Bayan. Without any factual basis, he spewed venomous posts in the imc-pilipinas mailing list against persons and organizations identified with Bayan while keeping quiet on his formal and informal links with Sanlakas.

Pairez would later bolt Indymedia-Pilipinas and form Indymedia-Manila.

Things came to a head on Aug. 13 when both groups met at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City and decided to formally part ways, assuring each other that no stumbling blocks would be thrown either way.

The application of Indymedia-Manila swiftly passed the Indymedia procedures and formally joined the network on Oct. 11, 2003. True to its word, the Indymedia-Pilipinas did not oppose the application.

While the IMC-Pilipinas application passed the new-imc stage on Dec. 1, 2003 without any objections, the Indymedia-Manila crew posed problems on the imc-process stage.

Pairez and his crew repeatedly opposed the former’s application on various grounds. The hysterical objections went from the name (asking Indymedia-Pilipinas to rename itself as Indymedia-Quezon City) to all sorts of issues and to as far as allege that Indymedia-Pilipinas was a “communist front,” a canard which was first made vogue by the fascist U.S.-backed Marcos dictatorship.

To break the impasse brought about by Pairez and his group, the Indymedia-Pilipinas collective decided on Dec. 19, 2003 to rename itself as Indymedia-QC and made subsequent changes in its mission statement and Principles of Unity to reflect its primary focus on the Quezon City locality.

The sabotage did not end there. Pairez and his group ate their words and again opposed the application of the renamed Indymedia-QC.

The Indymedia-QC application gained headway into 2004 when the Indymedia-QC collective agreed to a proposed three-month trial ending April 2, 2004 concomitant to joining the global Indymedia network on Jan. 2, 2004. 

For more information on Indymedia-QC, please click this link.

To read the Indymedia Collective, send an email.

To join the collective, join the imc-qc mailing list or sign up as volunteer. Posted by Bulatlat.com

Back to top

We want to know what you think of this article.