Media groups condemned the worsening attacks against
the press in the Philippines following the death threat against Mindanao Gold
Star Daily associate editor Leonardo Vicente Corrales, who is also alleged to
have a P1 million bounty on his head.
In a press conference, the National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) raised concerns over the red-tagging of Corrales,
along with veteran journalist Froilan Gallardo of MindaNews.
On August 27, Corrales received flyers sent via
courier service alleging that both him and Gallardo are members of the
Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.
The
courier packet, sent on August 24, identified the sender as Danilo Tirso
Mantangan of Sitio Camansi, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental with mobile phone
number 09091020123.
“It’s
an attempt to brand journalists as combatant parties of the conflict, instead
of journalists and civilians,” NUJP Western Mindanao safety officer JB Deveza said.
Deveza pointed out that the flyers also attacked the
credibility of the journalists by describing them as “biased” and “supporters
of terrorist organizations.”
“We
expect that this is not going away soon,” Deveza said, explaining the need
“to express our outrage and for the state to do something about it.”
“It does not only endanger the life of our
colleagues but also depriving the community of fair and unbiased reporting,”
he added.
Conflict
journalists
Gallardo,
who has covered the various conflicts of Mindanao for since the 1980s, said he
was included in the ongoing red-tagging of journalists, lawyers, church workers
and activists for having recently interviewed the New People’s Army about a
raid they carried out in August.
“We
cannot just write the government’s side, but also the rebels’,” Gallardo said.
“If they think that by doing this they would kill
the idea of journalism, they thought wrong”
Gallardo said journalists are duty-bound to get the
side of rebels in the many conflicts in Mindanao as they are expected to
interview government armed forces as well.
“We fail to get both sides of the story, then we are
no good as journalists,” Gallardo explained.
Predicate
to ‘terrorism’
Former
NUJP chair Inday Espina-Varona said journalists do not work in a vacuum and
called the attacks part of a national government policy stemming from President
Rodrigo Duterte’s vow to “crush Asia’s longest running communist insurgency.”
“Actually,
he (Duterte) had given himself his own deadline of June 2019, so there is a
sense of urgency now,” she said, adding that the red-tagging on Gallardo and
Corrales are connected and appeared to be in line with government’s efforts to
amend the Human Security Act.
Among others, this could lead to the classification
of journalists’ interviews of persons or groups tagged as terrorist as “an
accessory to crime and to terrorism.”
“There
is a strong attempt from government officials to not allow this (interviews
with rebels) anymore because it is deemed to be giving succor to their
enemies,” Varona said.
“The government’s view is: if you don’t want to be
red-tagged then you need to condemn certain parties, which is not what a
journalist does,” she added.
Making
journalists vulnerable
Varona
said the sedition charges filed against opposition figures, which stemmed from
a bogus ouster matrix Malacañan Palace itself released, makes journalists
vulnerable as it opens the possibility of their inclusion in the case.
“There’s
a lot of institutional repression, but it’s not just enough to say ‘let’s wait
for a law or a campaign’ because these attacks are not a joke and should be
taken very seriously. They should be laid at the feet of a government that
consistently failed to recognize these threats,” she said.
Jonathan
de Santos, NUJP National Capital Region chair stressed that journalists are
civilians and should not be labelled as belonging to any side in the conflict
for simply doing their jobs. He added that if this can happen to journalists,
it could happen to anyone.
Ms.
Azenath Formoso of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) read spokesperson,
Atty. Jacqueline Ann C. de Guia, CHR spokesperson, calling attacks on
journalists attacks on people’s right to the truth and to be fully informed.
The CHR It also echoed calls for security forces in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao to investigate the red-tagging and ensure the safety of targeted individuals.
The College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), meanwhile, said the attacks against Corrales and Gallardo extend to the ranks of the campus press.
“Military intelligence agents infiltrate campuses all over the country and take pictures of student publication offices,” CEGP national secretariat member Trixia Amboy said during the press conference.
In
a statement, the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) for its part called the
red-tagging of Corrales and Gallardo “baseless and irresponsible.”
This does not only endanger the profession and render chilling effect but also
put the lives of those red-tagged and their families at risk,” PPI said.
“We urge the government to hold
accountable the perpetrators of such false, malicious and dangerous
propaganda,” PPI added. # (Raymund
B. Villanueva)