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“Stay alive,” fiscal tells Baguio media

BAGUIO CITY (Dec. 9) — “Be sure you stay alive within the next five months!” Fiscal Benny Carantes told the officers and members of the newly formed local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP-Baguio-Benguet) after he inducted its officers.

Carantes affirmed that indeed the attack on media is an attack on press freedom and congratulated the members of the NUJP for their courage to organize journalists at a time it is too dangerous to be in the profession.

Carantes inducted into office Artemio A. Dumlao, chairperson, Kathleen T. Okubo, vice-chairperson, Arthur A. Allad-iw, secretary-general, Elina V. Ramo, treasurer and Desiree Caluza, auditor on December 16 in simple rites at the Lion’s Club here.

Several seasoned journalists among them Baguio media dean Cecile Afable, Gerry Evangelista, Nars Padilla and Willy Cacdac inspired the officers and members of the local NUJP during the get-together. Baguio Councilor Jose Molintas, and Cordillera Human Rights Alliance Chairperson Atty. Rene Cortes were among the well-wishers.

Barely three weeks since its first congress on November 29, NUJP-Baguio-Benguet led some 35 local journalists and groups in a nationally coordinated “walk-out from newsrooms” at 3 p.m. on December 9.

The nationwide protest actions, which included reading of a pooled media statement that explained the context of media killings were supported by major media groups across the archipelago.

Thirteen journalists were slain this year in the country, making the Philippines one of the most dangerous places for journalists to be.

A five-minute noise-barrage at the Igorot Park capped the rage after a statement condemning the brutal abduction-killing of reporter Stephen Omaois, 24, of the Guru Press in Kalinga province was read.

A day before the media mass action, the NUJP-BB local council called the attention of the local police force in an audience with Supt. Isagani R. Nerez, chief of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO).

NUJP-BB chairperson Dumlao said, the audience with the police was necessary to prepare both the media groups and the peacekeeping forces to better handle the issue of media repression in the wake of greater economic and political crisis grappling the country.

The journalists and the city police superintendent agreed to establish open communication through a police-media hotline and monthly meetings.

“This way, we could provide the media with an updated threat assessment,” Nerez told NUJP. He said that the work-related theory is hard to establish unless all data have been unearthed. “It is easy to collapse the findings into job-related, and later, to curtailment of press freedom,” Nerez observes, saying, the cause of the killings may have been due to personal grudges.

The best feedback mechanism, Nerez said, is through the media. Open communication, the groups agreed, would eventually help in a thorough investigation and an updated case assessment. Two cellular phone numbers were provided as Police hotlines in addition to Hotline 166 or 0744421211. A monthly meeting for a two-way updating was also in the agenda.

“With every murder of a journalist, a judge, an environmentalist, an anti-corruption activist, a human rights worker, democracy dies a little. As our nation grapples with crisis, and powerful groups jockey to control big chunks of our economy and body politic, many among our citizens, journalists among them, become casualties of events”, reads the pooled statement signed by more than 288 media groups, individuals and supporters.

As Filipino journalists unite in outrage, they also stand defiant against those who wish to silence Philippine media. “… History has shown that it is when the press is silenced that the dark hours descend on our people,” the journalists said.

Radio and broadcast networks simultaneously read the journalists’ manifesto, some of them observed a two-minute silence while major national dailies and regional papers carried it as an editorial.

The statement was also read before the delegates of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) which held its 2nd General Assembly in Baguio City.# Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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