Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. IV,    No. 42      November 21 - 27, 2004      Quezon City, Philippines

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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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