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Relentless red-tagging in Cagayan de Oro ‘scary and dangerous’

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The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called on those behind the relentless red-tagging of human rights, media, church and lawyers’ organizations in Cagayan de Oro City to stop their activities as it “endangers lives.”

For the eighth time since February, the NUJP and other organizations and personalities were again listed in posters, this time plastered on the walls of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) church in Cagayan de Oro’s Barangay Agusan Sunday.

A poster red-tagging the NUJP and the NUPL found plastered on the wall of a church in Cagayan de Oro last Sunday. (NUJP photo)

Along with the NUJP, the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao-National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, the IFI, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and others were listed as so-called fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The posters were signed by a shadowy group calling itself the Movement Against Terrorism-Northern Mindanao Region.

“The NUJP Cagayan de Oro City Chapter condemns this act, an act clearly meant to intimidate and silence a critical press,” the group’s statement, signed by its chapter president Pamela Jay Orias and NUJP Western Mindanao media safety officer JB Deveza, said Monday.

While denying it is a front for any organization, the NUJP said it will also not stand idly by while the truth is under persistent attack.

“[The NUJP] will not cower while the freedom of the press and the people’s right to truthful, accurate, and relevant information is under assault,” it said.

‘Scary’

Former NUJP director and Mindanao Gold Star Daily associate editor Cong Corrales said inclusion in the list is “scary, to say the least.”

Corrales is among the personalities listed by the posters and streamers that, at one time, had been displayed in his own village.

“[Mayroong] tarp din sinabit sa bridge facing Consolacion with the words may mga terrorist supporters dito sa [Barangay] Consolacion,” Corrales said.

A streamer red-tagging some residents of Barangay Consolacion in Cagayan de Oro. (Photo from Cong Corrales)

“Our Punong Barangay has already reported it to the police. Pero wala pa ring action,” he said.

Corrales said local officials should be asked to look into repeated red-tagging incidents in the city.

Corrales’ wife and son were, at one time, included in the list.

The veteran journalist has denied being a member of the underground groups.

“I feel they will not stop until one of us in the list is killed,” Corrales told Kodao.

The embattled journalist said he is taking safety precautions but believes the perpetrators know where he lives.

‘Not enemies of the state’

The NUJP said the people behind the red-tagging campaign must be reminded that a free press is guaranteed under the Philippine Constitution.

“Perhaps the people behind this despicable act need reminding that journalists are not enemies of the state. Perhaps the people behind these lies forget that journalists are just truth-tellers whose job serves the public interest,” the group added.

The group called on the perpetrators to stop the vilification campaign against the NUJP and against other rights organizations.

“Your lies endanger journalists; your lies put people’s lives at risk,” it said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

UP students, nagprotesta kontra suspensyon ng mga patnugot ng Rebel Kule

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Nagsagawa ng isang kilos-protesta ang mga mag-aaral ng Universidad ng Pilipinas sa Diliman noong Hunyo 26 sa Quezon Hall kontra sa ipinataw na suspensyon sa mga patnugot ng Rebel Collegian.

Ayon sa mga estudyante, hindi katanggap-tanggap ang desisyon na iginawad ng University Council Executive Committee (EC) na suspensyon sa pitong mamamahayag pang-kampus.

Nauna nang ipinawalang-sala ang mga patnugot ng Student Disciplinary Council subalit binaligtad ito ng EC noong Hunyo 20.

Kinasuhan ang pitong patnugot ng fraud, disobedience and stealing nang sinasabing admin-installed editor in chief ng Philippine Collegian na si Jayson Edward San Juan matapos hindi i-turnover ang social media account ng Collegian, bagay na iginiit ng Rebel Kule na hindi ito pagmamay-ari kailanman ng publikasyon. (Bidyo ni: Joseph Cuevas/ Kodao)

The UP ‘Rebel Kule’ case: Flatlining free expression

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Altermidya Network, the broad alliance of alternative media and community journalists groups in the Philippines, denounces the patently unreasonable manner in which the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Executive Committee (EC) ordered the suspension of the editorial board of the “Rebel Kule.”

The EC on June 21 overturned the earlier decision of the UP Diliman Student Disciplinary Council (SDC) to dismiss the charges of stealing, fraud, and disobedience filed by Philippine Collegian outgoing editor-in-chief Jayson Edward San Juan against the editors of Rebel Kule. The charges were based on allegations of misconduct in relation to the use of the Facebook and Twitter accounts that San Juan claimed were among the Collegian’s digital assets.

The EC – composed of the university’s deans and directors, the chancellor, vice chancellor, the university registrar, and other officials – released a two-page decision suspending the members of the Rebel Kule editorial board for one semester and five weeks, without even explaining why it has overturned the SDC’s earlier ruling, which said that San Juan’s accusations had “no sufficient basis.”

Among those to be suspended is incoming Philippine Collegian EIC Beatrice Puente, making her assumption of the position problematic. Also suspended are three graduating editors who were excluded from the graduation list this semester.

Rebel Kule has pointedly emphasized how due process was grossly set aside – both by the EC and the SDC – by not informing the respondents that San Juan appealed the SDC’s decision. Neither was the respondents given a copy of the appeal. Worse, the highest academic body in UP’s flagship campus made its decision with neither enough justification nor reason.

Not only is this move a dangerous precedent for campus publications throughout the country, it also undermines the University of the Philippines’ reputation as a bastion of free speech and expression by  imposing unwarranted penalties on students who dared continue the Philippine Collegian’s progressive tradition.

We have witnessed how, in times of turmoil, Rebel Kule persisted in reporting relevant issues that students and the UP community needed to know.

Is this how UP works now: haphazardly releasing decisions without the benefit of either logic or reason? Has the malady of oppression and repression besieging the nation now also adversely affected what was once a bastion of dissent?

The entire nation is besieged by the killing of journalists, the warrantless arrests against regime critics, and the harassments — and it seems that the country’s premier university has become just one more government institution similarly engaged in repression.

Just as we must hold accountable the UP Diliman administration and call for it to correct what we deem as a grave mistake, we must all unite in combating the darkness enveloping the nation. We cannot allow our civil liberties to flatline, and with it the country’s hopes for a true democracy. #

NUJP salutes CDO colleagues’ unity in defense of press freedom

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28 May 2019

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines hails our colleagues in Cagayan de Oro for their show of unity against unrelenting efforts to suppress freedom of the press and of expression.

When unidentified persons draped a black streamer naming so-called communist rebel “front organizations” – including the NUJP – on the fence of Cagayan de Oro’s Press Freedom Monument at Vicente de Lara Park, it was clear that we were not the sole media group targeted by this red-tagging operation, something we have been subjected to since late last year.

That the incident happened on the first day of Cagayan de Oro’s celebration of Press Freedom Week, an annual event dear to the hearts of our colleagues in the City of Golden Friendship, indicates it was intended as a warning to all journalists to go easy on critical reportage and commentary.

The response of our colleagues from the different media organization in Cagayan de Oro was as swift as it was appropriate: they tore the streamer down and set it alight, while vowing to remain united and not be cowed by those seeking to suppress the full exercise of democratic rights.

At a time when the threats to the profession and our basic rights and liberties continue to worsen, unfortunately abetted by a contemptible few who have chosen to betray the profession of truth, the example set by the media of Cagayan de Oro is proof of what we have maintained all along, that the united community of independent Filipino journalists is capable of holding back the darkness that seeks to engulf us once again.

The NUJP National Directorate

ALERT: NUJP red-tagged as Cagayan de Oro media commemorates Press Freedom Week

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27 May 2019

A streamer tagging the National Union Of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and other activist groups as allies of the ‘terrorist NPA’ was found draped at the foot of the monument honoring Press Freedom at the Provincial Capitol grounds in Cagayan de Oro.

The other groups similarly branded as ‘terrorists’ are the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM), the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), the the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), the League of Filipino Students (LFS), the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP), and the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE).

The streamer was found by members of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (CLUB) who gathered at the Press Freedom monument to launch the week-long commemoration of the 37th Press Freedom Week.

The streamer was later set ablaze following a 7am mass attended by members of the COPC.

Photo by Menzie Montes

“We condemn the red-tagging of the NUJP,”club member Uriel Quilinguing, a former president of the COPC as well as a former chairman of the NUJP-Cagayan de Oro Chapter, said.

Quilinguing said the COPC and other media groups in Cagayan de Oro City condemn what they called ‘baseless accusations’ against the NUJP.

Quilinguing called on the media to stay united in the face of threats which, he said is also the theme of Press Freedom Week.

Pamela Jay Orias, chairperson of the Cagayan de Oro Chapter of the NUJP, said a free press is a hallmark of a free and democratic society.

“A critical press serves the public interest and should therefore not be subjected to attacks,” Orias said.

No group has come out to claim responsibility for the red-tagging.

Reference:

JB R. Deveza
NUJP Safety Officer for western Mindanao

Despite the release of detained Reuters reporters, free speech remains under threat in Myanmar

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By Mong Palatino/Global Voices

Media groups and human rights advocates are celebrating the release of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who spent more than 500 days in detention for their role in investigating the massacre of some Rohingya residents in northern Myanmar. But despite their release, the state of free speech in the country is still undermined by the continued detention and persecution of some artists, journalists, and activists. Consider the following cases:

Defamation case against The Irrawaddy

A defamation complaint was filed by the military’s Yangon Region Command against The Irrawaddy’s Burmese-language editor U Ye Ni over the news website’s alleged unfair coverage of the armed clashes between government forces and the insurgent Arakan Army in Rakhine State. The Irrawaddy said it did nothing but report the escalating armed clashes in the region since the start of 2019. Here is U Ye Ni’s response to the case filed by the military:

I feel sorry about the military’s misunderstanding of us. Journalism dictates that we reveal the suffering of people in a conflict area. Our intention behind the coverage is to push those concerned to solve the problems by understanding the sufferings of the people.

The Irrawaddy is a content partner of Global Voices.

Jailed for satire

Meanwhile, five members of the Peacock Generation Thangyat troupe were sent to Insein prison to await trial for their satirical performance mocking the army. Thangyat is performance art similar to slam poetry featuring folk verses with traditional musical notes and is combined with song, dance, and chants. The group was charged with violating article 505(a) of the penal code which criminalizes the circulation of statements, rumors, or reports with the intent to cause any military officer to disregard or fail in his duties.

Zeyar Lwin, one of the accused, said:

All of our cases are political issues so that they need to resolve them as political issues. And also, I’d like to say all of us need to join the work for amending the 2008 constitution being done in parliament. In my opinion all of these issues can be resolved if we can do the primary work of amending the constitution.

Zeyar Lwin is referring to the 2008 constitution which many analysts believe was designed to reinforce military rule even after the restoration of civilian leadership.

Sickly filmmaker in detention

The case of filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi also reflects the restrictions imposed on critical artists. A complaint filed by a military officer against the filmmaker’s ‘defamatory’ Facebook posts led to his arrest. Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi is the founder of the Myanmar Human Rights Human Dignity Film Festival and a known critic of the military’s involvement in politics. His supporters are calling for his release on humanitarian grounds, since he has had half of his liver removed due to cancer and suffers from heart and kidney problems. The Human Rights Film Network, a partnership of 40 human rights film festivals around the world, sent this letter to the government:

As a concerned international human rights community, we seek reassurance from the Myanmar government to ensure that Section66(d), which was meant to enhance progress of telecommunications, will not be used to silence the voice of Myanmarese civilians seeking to voice their opinions and take part in the democratic process in Myanmar.

The letter refers to the controversial Section 66(d) defamation law which has been used by authorities to charge critics, activists, and journalists.

Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi’s petition for bail was rejected by a local court. His next hearing is scheduled for May 9, 2019.

‘They should never have been jailed in the first place.‘

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The Supreme Court upheld their conviction last April with finality but they were released from prison after they were granted a presidential pardon during the country’s traditional New Year.

Groups like the Southeast Asian Press Alliance welcomed the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo but they also highlighted the injustice suffered by the two reporters:

They should never have been jailed in the first place, because they committed no crime.

While we welcome this positive development, the case of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is proof that journalists are in constant risk of political reprisal for keeping power in check.

This article by Mong Palatino is from Global Voices, an international and multilingual news site, and is republished on Kodao Productions as part of a content-sharing agreement.

NUJP on Duterte’s insult of Tordesillas

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14 May 2019
Once again, the foul-mouthed misogynist who is the leader of our nation turns to personal insults when he will not or, most likely, cannot offer a credible explanation to his badly concocted and fictitious accusations against critics.

Asked by reporters in Davao City to explain the so-called “matrix” purporting to show a plot to oust him, which his spokesman Salvador Panelo at first attributed to him only to later claim it came from an unknown source, President Rodrigo Duterte insisted it was “authentic” as “Bikoy,” the erstwhile hooded character who appeared in a series of videos accusing the chief executive and members of his family of involvement in the drug trade and was later claimed by Peter Joemel Advincula.

He then vented his ire on veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files, one of those implicated in the matrix, who he called “every inch a prostitute.”

And while he did not name them, Duterte was apparently referring to other journalists included in the document when he referred to “professional twisters” who “are bayad sa (paid by the) Western …”

There is no question Duterte’s tiresome habit of spewing personal insults is intended to intimidate his targets into silence or submission.

Alas for him, his fits and tantrums speak more about his character than those he would smear.

His are the tactics of the thug who resorts to the bludgeon because he cannot reason, and even then he fails miserably.

We know for a fact that Ellen possesses more courage than he can ever hope to have beyond his macho posturing. So, too, do the other journalists he vilifies. As do all those who comprise the community of independent Filipino journalists.

Mr. Duterte may choose to ignore the lessons of history but does so at his own peril.

But of one thing we are sure, as history has amply proven. Despots come and eventually go. The truth and freedom will always outlast them.

The NUJP National Directorate

NUJP: Malacañang’s ‘new’ matrix ‘a badly-concocted fiction’

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The new “matrix” presented by presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo linking the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) as among those involved in the “deliberate attempt to discredit” the Rodrigo Duterte administration is nothing but “a piece of unadulterated crap,” the media group said.

Dismissing Malacañang Palace’s new latest accusation, the NUJP said the new diagram is another badly-concocted fiction meant to scare the administration’s perceived enemies, including independent journalists.

In his briefing Wednesday, Panelo presented diagrams showing the NUJP as involved in an alleged destabilization and link with political groups such as the Liberal Party and the rightist Magdalo Party.

Screengrab of RTVM’s video of presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo’s briefing Wednesday morning.

“The Office of the President, the President himself, has received intelligence information that has been validated and appears to show that there is deliberate attempt to discredit this administration as well as to boost the candidacies of the opposition—senatorial candidates. And it appears that there are certain groups who are working together to achieve this goal,” Panelo said.

“This group appeas to be the Liberal Party, some personalities identified as advocates who are very active on social media dishing out anti-Duterte statements and sentiments, and validated to be allied with the Liberal Party. Also, working together with groups in the matrix presented to you the other week,” Panelo said.

The NUJP said that Panelo’s statement linking the group to Rodel Jayme, arrested last week for uploading videos accusing members of the first family as well as senatorial candidate Christopher “Bong” Go, as having links with the illegal drug trade is criminal endangerment of people “without an iota of evidence.”

“But we say let them try their worst. They cannot scare the community of independent Filipino journalists into silence,” the NUJP said. (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CEGP honors NUJP’s Espina with MH del Pilar Award

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The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) awarded National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) national chairperson Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina its highest honor to its alumni at the start of the World Press Freedom concert in Quezon City last Friday, May 3.

In a special ceremony, the CEGP finally handed the award to Espina who was supposed to receive it during the Guild’s 77th National Students Press Convention at the University of the Philippines—Visayas (UPV) in Cebu City last March 9.

The awardee failed to attend the convention due to a family emergency.

The award, named after the journalist, patriot and hero Del Pilar, was given to Espina for being “a pillar of press freedom.”

“On top of his distinguished journalism career, the awardee is, without doubt, a leading force in the defense of press freedom and freedom of expression in the country today,” the CEGP’s citation, read by its secretary general Paula Sabrine Janer, said.

“As a multi-term NUJP director and now its national chairperson, the awardee steadfastly stands for these rights and leads his organization to their defense. Whatever prestige that the NUJP enjoys as a media organization here and abroad, it is owed in great part to our awardee’s leadership,” the Guild’s citation added.

Espina was a high school campus journalist in his hometome Bacolod City before becoming the editor of Pagbutlak, UPV’s college student publication in Iloilo City.

He was a member of the community media group Correspondents, Broadcasters and Reporters Association—Action News Service or COBRA-ANS of Negros Occidental that was part of the “Mosquito Press” that fought the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. He also became a reporter and editor of various local and national media outifts.

“[I]n honoring our awardee’s progressive, patriotic and disinguished career in journalism and for his principled and brave defense of press freedom and human rights in the Philippines, the CEGP awards this year’s Gawad Marcelo H. Del Pilar Award to a journalist worth emulating by student journalists everywhere,” the CEGP added.

NUJP national chairperson Nonoy Espina with his Marcelo H. Del Pilar Award trophy and certificate from the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. (Photo by Lito Ocampo)

In his acceptance speech, Espina said he is just a journalist who stands by his profession.

“I realized the importance of our profession in democracy, in society. I came to love this profession when I saw for myself the real situation of the people, especially the marginalized,” Espina said.

He added that he does not see journalism as the people’s voice but a platform so their stories are told.

“I have come to love journalism because, in my three decades of being a journalist, people sometimes come up to me to thank me for writing about their struggles,” Espina said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Salute to integrity

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April 26, 2019

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines salutes Felipe Salvosa II for his courageous display of journalistic integrity.

By openly protesting Manila Times owner Dante Ang’s insistence on publishing that malicious fiction about journalists and lawyers supposedly plotting to oust President Rodrigo Duterte, first by tweeting against it and resigning as managing editor of the paper, Mr. Salvosa has affirmed that journalism, is indeed, the profession of truth.

That he has done so at a time when the profession is under siege, not least by an administration that is the foremost purveyor of lies yet attempts to mask this fact by laying this charge on the critical press, is proof that the community of independent Filipino journalists values integrity and professionalism and will never succumb to pressure or blandishment to betray our calling.

Indeed, to borrow Mr. Salvosa’s words, the truly professional Filipino journalist seeks nothing more than to be able to “look our audience straight in the eye,” assured that we have served the people’s right to know faithfully.

The National Directorate