Editorial
“Hinarang kami ng napakaraming lalaki dito. Maraming lalaking naka-armado. Andito na si Unsay, sinampal niya ako.” These were the last words Datu Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu ever heard his wife Genalin say over a phone call on November 23, 2009. He called again, even trying to contact his sisters who had accompanied her to file Datu Toto’s certificate of candidacy for his Gubernatorial bid, but these efforts all proved futile. The next time he saw her, it was at a funeral home — the Ampatuans’ men had riddled her body with bullets. Genalin was not the only victim. Fifty-eight, including 32 media workers, ended up dead and buried at shallow graves over hilltops of Sitio Malating in Maguindanao as the events came as the clan planned it for four months.
The infamous Ampatuan massacre made history as the world’s deadliest single attack on journalists. Prize-winning journalist Criselda Yabes labeled the massacre as the mother of all political ridos that have transpired in Mindanao. After a decade of the public demanding action, the court served partial justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre last year. The court acquitted two Ampatuan clan leaders and more than 50 who were allegedly involved. Eighty of those charged remain at large because government efforts to arrest them always end in futility. Justice is still elusive for the 58th victim, Reynaldo Momay, as the court excluded him due to lack of material evidence to his death. Appeals are yet to be heard sooner depending on how leaden the Philippine justice system is. Considering these events, UNESCO recanted its earlier classification of the Ampatuan massacre from resolved to an ongoing case.
Remembering the gruesome horrors of the massacre and the subsequent events of attack on journalists that occurred under the tyranny of Duterte, the ruling is merely a rubber stamp victory for press freedom. The country ranked seventh in the 2020 Global Impunity Index, having 11 unsolved murders of journalists, and 136th in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Many cases of harassment and violence on mainstream and alternative media are often left unaddressed. This year alone, Rex Cornelio Pepino of Dumaguete, Jobert Bercasio of Sorsogon, and Vir Maganes of Pangasinan were killed by yet-unidentified murderers who remain at large. Indeed, in a country where the cycle of impunity is ever-existing, justice is perverted to benefit those who hold power.
Duterte’s vulgar and rash words continue to lower the quality of discourse in the country as well as public faith in the media. Since he assumed the presidency, he has mocked journalism and justified the violent deaths of journalists by claiming that they are corrupt. Further, his toxic machismo shines through in his disrespect for reporters, such as when he catcalled Mariz Umali during his first press conference as the president. But this is merely scratching the surface; his administration severely harmed Philippine press freedom when they denied ABS-CBN its legislative franchise due to foreign ownership and labor practices issues, which several government agencies claimed were erroneous. At a crucial time where there is a pressing need for information, the lower house robbed millions of Filipinos of their access to knowledge. Instead of advanced storm warning signals and updates about the COVID-19 pandemic, most Filipinos face a blank television screen. This was a serious infringement on press freedom and the right to information, and Panelo or Roque’s claims to the contrary are either ignorant of the realities of local broadcasting or bald-faced lies. It is and it has always been about press freedom. Not all channels have consistent signal reception throughout the country.
A month after the media giant’s shutdown, a gavel stomp served as an attempt again to stifle press freedom in the country when the court charged Rappler CEO and co-founder Maria Ressa and then-researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. guilty of cyberlibel. The ruling stemmed from fixing a typographical error in an article that provoked the ire of a businessman. With reasons yet to be emerged, the administration meddled by making the laws retroactive in targeting the media organization. The battle continues for Rappler as it also faces accusations of tax evasion, the contested use of Philippine Depositary Receipts, and violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.
To further rub salt on the wound, the cult-like traction of the Duterte phenomenon on social media instills a climate of fear and a death sentence to media workers. Disinformation, or the active creation of fake news for the sake of manipulating citizens, spreads quickly and violently with the rise of digital media. There is a surge of trolls and fake accounts that thrive on inflicting hate speech and harassment on news websites in different social media platforms. There exists a cycle of disinformation in the country. It starts when lies get public attention. Next, it will include faces on posters and flyers stating their alleged communist linkages until government fanatics intensify it in the digital sphere. Then death threats will occupy SMS inboxes until such time that the accused will either end in jail over trumped-up charges or on streets as a dead body staged for another spectacle of the day.
It is even perilous when it is the state that peddles these fatal gossips. Known to indulge in such actions, PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy and NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. accuse any entity that is critical of the government as legal fronts of the communist party. They red-tagged ABS-CBN, CNN Philippines, student formations such as College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and Union of Journalists of the Philippines (UJP-UP) as well as independent media like Bulatlat and Altermidya among others. This tactic of the administration to institutionalize killing democracy through the notoriety of NTF-ELCAC is every inch an act of diverting public attention from government incompetence and their growing fear of being toppled.
This is a crucial moment for the press as it both jeopardizes them in doing their work and it makes them more vital in pursuing truth as they are in the frontline of recognizing and debunking fake news. Media institutions must continue to be proactive in challenging disinformation; they must change the industry practice of merely getting all sides of an issue. They must keep braving blood and guts to safeguard what is left of our democracy.
Indeed, we are at a time of highly volatile political situations. We are in an era where governments feed alternate realities to the public — facts are hardly rigid anymore. It has been 11 years and power-fetishizing state actors have not yet learned about press freedom. Even today, they still treat media workers as corruptible and expendable. Let this day of commemoration be a constant reminder of our resistance to the status quo that tolerates impunity and injustice. Let the state bullies eat what they accuse towards the media. We must not cease in holding the government accountable for their tyrannical practices and neglect as our deteriorating democracy prospers on criticism. Above all else, serve the people and go beyond colors of politics.
