Negros Media Slam Mike Arroyo
3 NPC officers resign in protest over Arroyo’s
membership
Jose Miguel Arroyo,
husband of the President, sent Negros journalists in uproar after he was
inducted as honorary member of the Negros Press Club despite being a
non-media person and making remarks that undermine press freedom.
BY
Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat
Bacolod
City – Negros journalists belonging
to the Negros Media Council for Press Freedom (NMCPF) hit Jose Miguel
Arroyo’s “divide-and-rule tactics” and “anti-media” position. Arroyo,
husband of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, earlier told members of the
Negros Press Club (NPC) that he is glad that there’s not much killing
among Negros media because they are responsible and adhere to the rules
and ethics of journalism.
He was the guest
speaker when the Negros Press Club held its induction ceremony on May 4 in
Bacolod.
Edgar Cadagat, NMCPF
secretary-general, scored Arroyo in a press statement.
He said, “In an
obvious move to flatter the local media, (Arroyo) implied that the Negros
media were better than their national counterparts, and urged them to tell
Manila-based journalists to be truthful in their reportage. Unfortunately,
he used the flattery as a springboard to mount an attack against local
mediamen’s colleagues – something which smacks of divide and rule tactic.”
In addition, Jaime
Espina, NPC secretary and Today reporter, said “the implications of
speech are wide ranging and chilling. It not only reinforces attacks
against the media practitioners but promote a culture of competition,
division, intrigues and violence.” Espina called Arroyo’s statement
“grossly irresponsible.”
Ranie Azue, chairman
of Liga Journalista, agreed with his colleagues saying, “Arroyo has only
added insult to injury, especially in the current climate that media
practitioners nationwide are under siege from the forces of anti-press
freedom.”
Acerbic tirades
Cadagat said that
Arroyo’s “acerbic tirades against national journalists were evidently
triggered by what he said were untruthful reporting citing as examples his
supposed stay in a $20,000 suite in Las Vegas and the alleged jueteng
pay-offs he and immediate members of his family are getting from gambling
lords nationwide.”
Meanwhile, three NPC
officers – Arman Toga, vice president; Jaime Espina, secretary; and Henry
Cestina, director – tendered irrevocable resignations May 9 in protest
over what they called the “serious damage to the integrity and honor of
the NPC by the unwarranted and undeserved induction of FG Mike Arroyo as a
member of the organization” and “the refusal of NPC President Primo
Esleyer to rectify this grievous error.”
In their resignation
letter, the three said, “We cannot abide serving under a leadership that
wantonly violates the NPC rules and tradition and refuses to publicly
correct a mistake that has put the Club’s integrity and honor in question,
both to its members, the Philippine media community and the general
public, whom we, as journalists, serve.”
The three also said
that “while we respect Arroyo’s right to free expression, as FG and
husband of a President under whose watch the number of murdered
journalists is reaching record numbers – 23 since her ascencion to power
in 2001 – 13 last year, and five this year alone – the implication in his
speech that our murdered colleagues deserved their fates was not only
irresponsible, but reinforces the culture of impunity and violence that
has led to this sorry state. How can we reward him with membership in the
Club?” they asked.
Short-lived
membership
Meanwhile, Arroyo
formally tendered resignation last week, three days after his
controversial induction.
“I regret that I had
been misunderstood by some members of the organization but I would like to
assure that it was never my intention to hurt the feelings of anyone,”
Arroyo said. Bulatlat
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