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Press Freedom Day ignites with demands for journalist’s liberty

There is no genuine press freedom in the Philippines while a journalist unjustly remains in jail, media groups said on World Press Freedom Day today, May 3.

Media groups People’s Alternative Media Network (Altermidya) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) both called for the liberty of Tacloban-based journalist and broadcaster Frenchie Mae Cumpio who has been in jail for more than three years.

This 30th World Press Freedom Day, the struggle for a genuinely free press in the Philippines persists as community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio remains unjustly detained in Tacloban City,” Altermidya said in a statement.

Charged with terrorism-related cases, Cumpio is also appealing the forfeiture of hundreds of thousands of pesos the police said she was using to finance rebellion.

Cumpio was among human rights defenders and activists arrested in February 2020 in simultaneous raids by the police.

“The Altermidya Network continues to call for the dismissal of all fabricated charges and immediate release of our fellow community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio,” the media group said.

“We have no doubt that elements of the state are behind prolonging Frenchie’s case as she is a fierce government critic who upholds the interest of the people in her reportage,” it added.

Meanwhile, NUJP said that while there have been recent press freedom victories, such as in the acquittal of Maria Ressa and Rappler of tax evasion cases, many journalists are still facing threats.

NUJP said that prior to their arrest, Cumpio had been red-tagged and subjected to surveillance by the police and the military and that charges against her are based on testimony from questionable witnesses.

“The slow pace of (Cumpio’s) case — especially in contrast with the quick resolution of other, more high profile ones — is a violation of her right to a quick trial and also deprives the communities on (Eastern Visayas) that she used to report on and for,” NUJP said.

Other press freedom violations

NUJP said that Cumpio’s case is just one among several other press freedom violations in the Philippines.

The group said that since the Rodrigo Duterte administration, there have been attempts to convince journalists to disaffiliate from groups like the NUJP and outright attempts to paint the independent and alternative press as “enemies of the state.”

“While these attempts have been toned down under the new administration, they have continued. Attempts to organize within our ranks — and among citizens in general — are viewed with suspicion, if not vilified outright,” the group revealed.

NUJP and Altermidya also complain of government orders to block Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly news websites, as well as the “weaponization” of laws against freedom of expression and opinion, including the Anti-Terrorism and SIM Card Registration acts.

The groups also recalled government-led attacks against the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Rappler and ABS-CBN as well as the still unresolved murders of journalists Renato Blanco and Percy Lapid who were killed under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Don’t pressure journalists to sign drug inventories

Although the Dangerous Drugs Act requires that the inventory and documentation of suspected narcotics that authorities seize in operations is done in the presence of witnesses this should not be taken to mean that law enforcement personnel have the authority to force members of the media to act as witnesses and sign inventories.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has taken the position since 2018 that the law should be amended to remove media workers as official witnesses in drug operations since this can put them at risk of retaliation from drug suspects and of contempt of court if they fail to attend hearings if the case goes on trial. The requirement in the law also means that journalists who cover drug operations could find themselves isolated from police sources or deprived of access to information if they refuse.

We welcome the National Bureau of Investigation’s apology over attempts by its personnel to coerce some of our colleagues — including the use of homophobic slurs — to sign during a recent anti-drug operation.

NUJP reminds the media community that while we may be assigned to cover law enforcement operations and that while it is our duty to report on these operations, the burden of ensuring that these are done according to due process and the law is on the authorities.

Our role as journalists is the best way to act as witnesses to drug raids and other law enforcement operations without signing government affidavits and forms. #

(March 17, 2023)

I was Luis Teodoro’s student, and I took it for granted

By JC Gotinga

I was a broadcasting student at UP Diliman, and Journalism 101 was part of the syllabus. But I had no plans of becoming a journalist, and I didn’t really concern myself with current affairs.

I thought I was going to be a hotshot TV-and-film director. This was before there were smartphones. We shot our projects with MiniDV handycams. The iPod, a music player that didn’t require CDs or tapes, was just a rumor.

I remember next to nothing from my Journ 101 classes. What I do remember in vivid detail was the time I made Professor Teodoro so fuming mad, I worried he was going to have a heart attack.

My friend Naomi and I sat on the back row of his class – very telling of how much interest we had in the subject. That day, a new issue of a university paper that was a parody of The Collegian was going around. In the middle of class, Naomi nudged me and showed me something funny – inappropriate – on the back page. I don’t remember what it was, but I blurted out in laughter.

It was a scene out of a jackass movie where the whole class turns to look at you, tutting their disapproval.

I had never offended a teacher before that. I was a teacher’s pet all through elementary and high school, and I’d generally been cool with my college profs. It’s just that journ class bored me to death, and I didn’t think I’d have anything to do with journalism.

Even I was in shock and disbelief at the creature I had, at that moment, become.

“Who laughed?” Professor Teodoro demanded to know.

I raised my hand.

I forget what he had been discussing, but it was, like all of his lectures, serious. In so many words, he told me how dare I laugh in the face of such profundities. How dare I make light of a subject, of a practice, of a tradition for which he and his contemporaries had been incarcerated and tortured, even murdered.

He was so angry he was trembling. I half-expected him to faint. His eyes behind his thick glasses watered.

He walked away from the whiteboard and towards the window. He held on to the sill, and I thought he was being dramatic. The light from outside cut him a sharp profile from where I sat.

He then started talking about the mortal dangers he and his contemporaries lived through while fighting the Marcos dictatorship. He mentioned Amando Doronila who I gathered was his friend and an equally battle-scarred journo.

I think back on this now and I realize it might not have been anger that riled him up but frustration. Frustration at how, no matter how sharp, eloquent, beautiful, profound his lectures were, the message was still lost on the likes of me – heathen children of a younger generation privileged to not have known mortal crisis.

The heat of his rage dissipated and his tone mellowed. Still by the window where the light outlined his sharp nose and tall forehead, he talked about the struggles of the era we were lucky to have missed. He talked about jail. I couldn’t imagine him, the most dignified man I had ever met, a prisoner.

I imagined myself as a prisoner. I asked my self, fleetingly, if I would ever let myself be so given to a cause like patriotism or free speech that I’d end up a prisoner.

No, thanks, Professor. Thank you for your sacrifices. But I am a soft child of my fortunate generation. I am sorry you lived through a terrible time, but now is a different time. A more enlightened time. People and the world have evolved, and we don’t need to inherit your hard-skinned virtues.

My thoughts at the time. And then life and current events happened. Here I am, a journalist.

I understand now how events can turn so that a good, dignified man can end up in prison. That powerful people with much to lose are capable of torture and other nasty things because, like every other person, they’re selfish, but the stakes for them are much higher, and they’d probably long sold their soul to get to that level of wealth and influence anyway.

I’ve now seen for myself the [many forms of] oppression the Professor battled. I now try to battle them myself as another wielder of a pen. I now ride the nag I inherited from him and his contemporaries to confront dragons disguised as windmills. I, like him, now even make references to literary classics.

Time has a way of teaching you the lessons you missed when they were first taught to you, right? I’ve found myself staring out of windows a few times, wondering what went wrong and what I could have done differently and how else I could communicate what I think people need to understand. In the few years since our democracy started to decline, I’ve been in a constant rage, wanting to both embrace and destroy this heathen generation that can’t seem to recognize its own good.

I don’t think Professor Teodoro would have remembered me. I did hope to find myself again in the same room as him and introduce myself as that student who laughed during his class two decades ago, and say that I am sorry. Not just for disrespecting him, but for taking his message for granted.

That message found another way to reach me, and I still cannot really claim to be his student in the real sense of the word. But at least I think he would have enjoyed the irony and savored the poetic justice time has served him.

I could wish his heart wasn’t broken by our country’s recent history, but I am certain it was. I, the heathen who only recently came to the light, am heartbroken. How could he, who had wagered far more for the cause than anyone, not be?

His sun set under the rule of the same family that terrorized his generation. If we are headed for darker times, then his passing is a mercy to one who has fought battles long enough.

Because what I did pick up as the man averted his gaze from me that day I disrespected him was that he would never, ever, have stopped fighting. Even then, he seemed frail of body, but I saw his spirit, and it made me tremble. Only his body could fail him.

Rest in peace, Professor Teodoro. Please forgive me. #

Gunmen kill broadcaster; murder earns swift condemnation

Gunmen killed a broadcaster in Las Pinas City on Monday, the second media worker killed under the three month-old Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency.

Percival Mabasa, known in the broadcast industry as Percy Lapid, was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital after two gunmen aboard a motorcycle fired at least two gunshots at the victim.

Described as a hard-hitting broadcaster, he was a critic of several Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte government officials.

Mabasa’s family said they are deeply saddened and angered by what they described as a “brutal and brazen killing of fearless broadcaster, father and husband, brother and friend.”

“We strongly condemn this deplorable crime; it was committed not only against Percy, his family, and his profession, but against our country, his beloved Philippines, and the truth,” the family said.

They added that the victim was highly respected by his listeners as well as peers and foes alike.

“His bold and sharp commentaries cut through the barrage of fake news over the air waves and on social media,” they added.

Mabasa was host of Lapid Fire radio show that aired on DWBL. Previously, he was a broadcaster with radio station DWIZ.

On his YouTube channel, Mabasa commented on the dangers of red-tagging, including that of the recent harassment of Manila Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar who ruled against the government’s proscription of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations.

Mabasa also recently commented on the security risks of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators and on historical distortion of Martial Law.

The victim is the second journalist to be killed under Marcos Jr. administration.

Radio broadcaster Rey Blanco was stabbed to death in Mabinay, Negros Oriental last September 18.

Immediate condemnation

Media and human rights organization also condemned the killing and joined Mabasa’s family in calling for justice.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Mabasa’s murder shows that journalism remains a dangerous profession in the country.

“That the incident took place in Metro Manila indicates how brazen the perpetrators were, and how authorities have failed to protect journalists as well as ordinary citizens from harm,” the NUJP in a statement Tuesday said.

The Pinoy Media Center condemned Mabasa’s murder and called it another politically-motivated case of extrajudicial killing “to silence truth seekers and media practitioners.

The People’s Alternative Media Network also condemned the murder it said is part of a landscape of violence and intimidation against journalists and citizens.

The National Press Club and the organization of justice beat reporters also issued statements calling for justice for Mabasa.

Human rights group Karapatan joined in the calls for an independent investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Karapatan also said it will join the condemnation rally organized by the NUJP at the Boy Scouts monument in Quezon City at six o’clock tonight. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Court denies TRO petition versus NTC memo banning Bulatlat

Editor hopeful ‘damaging order’ will be eventually nullified

A Quezon City Court denied the petition of an alternative news outfit for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) memorandum to internet service providers to ban its website, along with dozen others.

In an order issued on June 13, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 306 said that Bulatlat.com’s website was accessed during the hearing on the same day, prompting defense counsel Ferdinand Topacio to say there is no ground for issuing a temporary restraining order.

Presiding Judge Dolly Rose Bolante-Prado said that the requisites for the issuance of a TRO are not present in the case, noting that Bulatlat is still able to publish news and commentaries.

“Consequently, there is no irreparable damage, as defined by law, to speak of. The plaintiff’s counsel’s claim that the number of Bulatlat.com’s visitors was reduced, is of no moment,” Bolante-Prado’s two-page order reads.

“The inconvenience, if any, that was caused by the questioned Memorandum to the plaintiff is  irrelevant. What is clear is that Bulatlat.com, as revealed today, can still publish online and is accessible to its audience,” it added.

Bulatlat managing editor Ronalyn Olea said they remain hopeful that the NTC memorandum would eventually be nullified by the Court.

“We are saddened by the denial of our prayer for TRO versus NTC memo but still hopeful that the Court will eventually rule in favor of press freedom and the people’s right to information,” Olea said.

READ: JOURNALISM IS NOT TERRORISM

The Court has given both petitioner and the defense until July 18 to submit their memoranda on the petition for nullification of the NTC order.

 “The NTC memo has caused irreparable damage to our Constitutional rights since our website remains inaccessible to significant segments of our audiences. The fact remains that Bulatlat has been labelled as affiliated or supportive of alleged terrorist groups without any evidence. The NTC memorandum constitutes content-based censorship,” Olea added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

JOURNALISM IS NOT TERRORISM

Journalism is not terrorism. (NUJP image)

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) memorandum ordering the blocking of the two media outfits’ websites, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s shutdown order against Rappler are part of the systematic campaign against independent media.

These recent incidents aim to drown out the truth on one hand, and to drumbeat disinformation and misinformation on the other hand.

Just recently, the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) once again labeled the NUJP as a communist front.

The red-tagging of journalists is a deliberate attempt to discredit, isolate and render the Philippine media irrelevant. We are not taking all these sitting down.

Today, Bulatlat.com is filing a petition before the Courts to have the NTC order stopped and dismissed. We are fighting back. We will persevere in speaking truth to power. History is on our side. Press freedom will always remain a pillar of every democracy while those who sought to curtail press freedom were always repudiated and consigned to the dustbin of history.

#defendpressfreedom

Artists, cultural workers: #StandWithRappler

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), an organization of Filipino artists and cultural workers, expresses their solidarity with Rappler as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a revocation order of its certificates of incorporation.

Dated June 28 and signed by SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino and four other commissioners, the order reaffirms its decision to revoke the papers of Rappler in their records and system.

For Prof. Lisa Ito, the secretary-general of CAP, the SEC’s order of revocation vs. Rappler is “an attack not only on the institution but [on] freedom of the press and expression.”

Ito urges her fellow cultural workers to #StandWithRappler and other media workers “in holding the line and carrying on the struggle for truth.”

“The SEC’s move to revoke Rappler’s papers is censorship by closure, happening on the cusp of a Duterte-Marcos term. It is an attack not only on the institution but to freedom of the press and expression. We as concerned citizens and cultural workers must stand with media workers in holding the line and carrying on the struggle for truth.” — Prof. Lisa Ito, Secretary-General, Concerned Artists of the Philippines

NUJP’s de Santos elected to executive committee of Asia-Pacific’s newest media federation

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chairperson Jonathan de Santos was elected to the executive committee of Asia-Pacific’s newest media organization at the ongoing 31st World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Muscat, Oman.

IFJ delegates from the region formed the Federation of Asia-Pacific Journalists (FAPaJ), the fourth regional formation of the world’s biggest organization of journalists.

IFJ Vice President and India Journalists Union (IJU) general secretary was elected president, Salem Al Jahwari was elected as vice president while Mousa Abdul Nour, Ali Yousef, Mohammad Alhammadi, Leigh Tonkin, Badri Sigdel and de Santos were elected as members of the executive committee.

“It is an honor for the NUJP to be part of the first executive council of FAPaJ, especially at a time when colleagues across the region are facing online harassment as well as repression and suppression in the guise of protecting the public against ‘fake news’,” de Santos told Kodao.

We hope that the new federation will help nurture existing cooperation among unions in Southeast Asia and lead to further solidarity among unions and press organizations across Asia and the Pacific towards press freedom and better working conditions for journalists,” de Santos added.

The NUJP is IFJ’s member organization in the Philippines.

At its founding, FAPaJ committed to protect the right to free speech, to strengthen free expression online and fight against laws which lead to internet shutdowns in the region.

The new regional federation adopted several resolutions, including voting unanimously to condemn the increasing assaults on the press in countries in the region including Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Myanmar and Hong Kong.

It also called for increased monitoring of the arrests and trials of journalists and other press freedom violations.

The delegates also moved to condemn the killing of Palestinian journalist Shiren Abu Aqla killed while covering Israeli army raids in the city of Jenin last month.

New IFJ president

Dominique Pradalié – IFJ World Congress Oman (IFJ photo)

Meanwhile, a Frenchwoman was elected as IFJ’s new president, succeeding Younes Mjahed from Morocco, the federation’s first woman president.

Dominique Pradalié from France, member of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ), was elected IFJ president after six years of being a member of the executive committee.

In her acceptance speech, Pradalié pointed out that press freedom is under attack all over the world and journalists are the first victims.

“But it is the citizens who are the most penalised, because democracies are judged by the quality of their media and information, which must be honest, complete, independent and pluralist,” Pradalié said.

“Solidarity and collective action must be multiplied everywhere to promote and remember the mission and role of journalists in society,” she added.

IFI’s 31st World Congress is attended by over 250 participants representing journalists’ unions and associations from 92 countries whose key themes include the surveillance of journalists and action to end impunity for crimes against media workers.

Founded in 1926, the IFJ is the world’s largest organization of journalists with 600,000 media professionals from 187 trade unions and associations in more than 140 countries. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Media groups urge Marcos Jr to ensure media freedom

Manila’s Cardinal Advincula: ‘When truth is at stake, remaining apathetic and being silent is a sin’

International and local media groups urged the incoming Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government to commit to protecting media freedom they said has since deteriorated after being restored upon the ouster of the first Marcos regime in 1986.

Reminding that the media was “restricted and regulated” during his father’s regime, seven media groups said media freedom has also suffered under the outgoing Rodrigo Duterte government with increased attacks on journalists and independent media.

“The president-elect of the Philippines as a result of the May 9 election must ensure the protection of media freedom in the country. Media freedom is important to fulfill the right to information for the public, which is one of the keys to democracy,” the seven groups said.

In a statement, the Alliance of Independent Journalists, Center for Independent Journalism, The Movement of Independent Media / Gerakan Media Merdeka, Freedom Film Network, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association, and Association of Journalists of Timor Leste cited that the Philippines has declined on the World Press Freedom Index in the last five years.

“Using new metrics to measure press freedom in its 2022 index, Reporters Without Borders ranked the Philippines 147th, the third lowest in Southeast Asia,” the groups said.

They added that the guarantee of media freedom must be implemented by enacting press freedom laws, establishing independent media councils, decriminalizing defamation, ending censorship and bans on the media, and stopping lawsuits.

The groups also said the Philippine government must stop the practice of impunity by committing to uncover and prosecute the perpetrators of attacks against journalists and media, both physically and digitally. Perpetuating impunity will result in a prolonged cycle of violence.

Letter to President-elect Marcos

In a separate May 23 letter, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) President Jodie Ginsberg requested President-elect Ferdinand Jr. to reverse Duterte’s “abusive acts and policies” targeting independent media and journalists and to restore the Philippines’ “once-proud standing as a regional bastion of press freedom.”

Ginsberg said that Marcos should undo Duterte’s long campaign of intimidation and harassment of the press and “give top priority to this urgent task.”

“The legitimacy of your administration should be based on independently reported facts that allow for the kind of true public accountability that is the hallmark of strong democracies. The people of the Philippines deserve no less,” Ginsberg wrote.

Ginsberg said the new Marcos administration should end the relentless persecution of journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa she described as “a global beacon of press freedom.”

“CPJ calls on your government to immediately drop all pending charges against Ressa, her colleagues, and the Rapplermedia group,” Ginsberg wrote.

She said the cases against Ressa and Rappler were trumped-up in attempts to shutter Rappler and carry potential prison penalties.

Ginsberg also mentioned Rappler reporter and NUJP director Lian Buan who complained of being shoved and blocked several times by the president-elect’s security detail and media relations officer while covering Ferdinand Jr.’s campaign events.

The CPJ said it also strongly calls on the incoming Philippine government to restore the operating franchise of ABS-CBN and to stop the Duterte regime’s red-tagging of journalists.

“Red-tagging is especially dangerous considering the Philippine military’s alleged role in extrajudicial killings and torture of accused communists,” Ginsberg wrote.

The CPJ also called on Marcos Jr. to drop the red tagging-related charges pending against journalist Frenchiemae Cumpio who has been languishing behind bars for over two years in an attempt to silence her reporting on the Philippine military’s operations against communist rebels and alleged associated human rights abuses.

“As the Philippines’ newly elected leader, you have the mandate to reassert your country’s damaged democratic credentials by forthrightly promoting and protecting press freedom. We urge you to seize this important moment and state clearly from the outset that journalists will be free to report without fear of reprisal, intimidation, or imprisonment during your tenure,” Ginsberg said.

‘Combat lies with truth’

Meanwhile, Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula warned of a “crisis of truth” and urged the Catholic faithful to combat lies.

Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula (wearing miter) mobbed by “selfie”takers at the end of the Thanksgiving Mass on the canonization of St. Titus Brandsma at the Cubao Cathedral last May 28. (R.VillanuevA/Kodao)

At the thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of Dutch Carmelite priest Titus Brandsma last Saturday, Advincula said the media should only be used to promote truth.

“When we seem to be experiencing a crisis of truth especially on social media, St. Titus inspires us to use social media as a pulpit from which we must proclaim, and if need be, defend the truth,” Advincula said.

Hailed as the Catholic Church’s martyr for press freedom, St.Titus Brandsma was arrested and killed by German occupiers for refusing to publish Nazi propaganda during World War II.

Advincula led the thanksgiving at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao with the Carmelite community in the Philippines after Brandsma’s elevation to Catholic Church sainthood by Pope Francis last May 15 in Rome.

“This makes St. Titus very relevant to our times. If there are forces that use social media to deceive and spread lies, let us come combat them with flooding it with the truth of God’s word,” the Cardinal said in his homily.

“St. Titus reminds that when truth is at stake, remaining apathetic and being silent is a sin,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Titus as Journalist: Titus Brandsma and the Freedom of the Press

By Raymund B Villanueva

(Lecture delivered last April 26 to an Institute of Spirituality in Asia webinar as part of Titus Brandsma Canonization 2022 Committee celebrations of the Order of Carmelites in the Philippines. Pope Francis is set to canonize Blessed Titus Brandsma, OCarm with nine others at the Vatican today, March 15.)

Thank you once more for inviting me to yet another Institute of Spirituality in Asia webinar. This time, I won’t be talking about something I am very familiar with. In fact, it is a bit presumptuous of me to accept the invitation to talk about the Blessed Titus Brandsma as a journalist because I am quite sure he is more familiar to you than he is to me. I accepted because I believe I can make comparisons, parallelisms and juxtapositions to what he endured to defend freedom of the press and of expression and what we as practicing journalists of today have to contend with as well. Also, it is quite an honor to be made part of the Philippine celebrations in anticipation of his canonization next month, one that should not be declined lightly.

Aside from being a philosophy teacher, a Carmelite religious, mystic, reformer and many other things, Titus took on the role of a journalist and was chief editor of De Stad Oss, which he gave a new identity to. He wrote an impressive number of articles for the Carmelrozen Magazine that focused on spirituality. Sources said journalism occupied a special place in Titus’ heart, considering it an excellent opportunity to give the spiritual life a place in what was then an increasingly secularizing Dutch society. He also wrote articles on Dutch piety in De Gerderlander and served as an adviser to the Roman Catholic Journalists’ Association.

Here is where I will attempt to draw parallelisms and juxtapositions.

I consider those who enter the world of journalism lucky because it was not only their dream but also because they have spent their young lives preparing to become one. They are blessed with not only clear dreams and definite goals and so have studied and trained to become one from school. Many were fortunate to be hired and to work as one, and more blessed are they if they have spent the best years of their lives being, serving and living as journalists.

They must have seen and still see journalism as a life worth living, a force of good not just for themselves but for others. To devote oneself to such a lifelong undertaking, they must consider the calling as beyond just trade, skill, a way to earn a living, or, for personal glory by way of the byline. Sure, these are reasons by themselves, but journalism, good or bad, is beyond all these.

Blessed Titus’ journey into journalism started, I believe, like most lifelong journalists did and do, at least in the Philippines. He was not a child who dreamt of being a journalist and formally studied to become one. He studied and trained to become a religious and, when he was already one, became a journalist as well, among many other concerns and personal projects.

I have heard it said repeatedly that becoming a good journalist is not necessarily premised on having studied journalism formally. In fact, one should study and master other disciplines in order to become a knowledgeable journalist, one who is not just a master in stringing words together but someone who may also know a thing or two about what s/he reports about. For example, one who has studied economics has a better chance of becoming a good business reporter or a political science graduate is more likely to become a good correspondent reporting on government.

But what about news writing and reportorial skills? Shouldn’t prospective journalists study that as their main training? Well, yes. But what I am trying to say is, becoming anything is not solely dependent on one’s academic training. One can become good at anything if s/he puts his/her mind and body into it which, in Blessed Titus’ case, was successful. Journalists do not just come from journalism schools. They come from everywhere, as Fr. Ritche Salgado, OCarm, who was already a licensed physical therapist before becoming a journalist and later on a religious, showed us. I am another example of sorts. I studied Philosophy and Letters at a school that had no journalism program, yet here I am fancying and styling myself as one.

But Blessed Titus was, of course, a cut above our humble examples. Because of his spirituality, he became a journalist to amplify his thoughts, beliefs and faith. His journalism became an energetic conduit to sharing, informing, educating, evangelizing and witnessing. He wrote, edited and published to give more fullness to his calling and mission. He was a force in arguing for the spiritual life in an increasingly secularizing society.

Blessed Titus’ spirituality and his journalism were not nebulous things. They were also firmly anchored in the temporal, such as denouncing and fighting evil in this world like Nazism and the assassination of freedom of the press and expression. It came to fore when the Third Reich invaded his homeland The Netherlands in May 1940. He did not only write against this evil, he also took on the very dangerous mission in January 1942 to deliver by hand a letter from the Conference of Dutch Bishops to the editors of Catholic newspapers ordering them not to print official Nazi documents, as was dictated by the German occupiers. He also urged Catholic newspapers and magazines to not accept and print advertisements from groups that supported Nazism. He had accomplished delivering this message to 14 editors before being arrested on 19 January of that year. He is now known, most of all by the Philippine Carmel, to be the Martyr of Press Freedom for refusing to let falsehood and evil see print, even at the cost of his life.

And here is another parallelism: fascism is still with us today, no less evil as when Nazi boots trampled Blessed Titus’ people. Spilled blood paint streets, lives ebb as plaintive cries rend the air. Poverty is the people’s reality while our rulers flaunt wealth sucked from the sinews and marrows of emaciated bodies of workers. Have you seen how our people patiently wait for the chance to catch a ride morning and night, dreaming of laying their heads for a few hours of rest before another day’s suffering? Titus would have looked at these scenes and wrote about them from and with his light. It is possible that had he been a journalist during our times, he would have railed against the social injustices and be persecuted.

Many journalists today die because because of such stories. Marlene Esperat exposed the fertilizer scam and died for it when armed men stormed into her house one night and shot her in front of her children. Broadcaster Gerry Ortega railed against the rape and plunder of the environment and was shot to death in full view of many people in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Under the Rodrigo Duterte regime, at least 22 journalists have been killed. We have documented hundreds and hundreds of attacks on press freedom including cyber-attacks, vilification, arrests, trumped-up charges, red-tagging and many others.

Because as in the time of Hitler, so it is today with Duterte. In the face of social injustices, many journalists try to be as Titus, refusing to be dictated upon, muzzled, and ordered to be the purveyor of falsehood and evil. They may not have heard about Titus Brandsma, but one thing with goodness and light is that they manifest in other humans and through acts that may be described as spiritual for one.

In a few weeks’ time, the Church will elevate Blessed Titus to its pantheon of saints. He shall be another intercession for our collective dream for fullness of humanity. And this blessing could not come at a better time for journalists and the Filipino people. When the religious, the journalists, human rights defenders, public interest lawyers, land reform advocates, militant labor, are being killed, St. Titus would implore us to be with them as witnesses. When falsehoods are misrepresented as facts, when the media are subverted and corrupted, when trolls try to be the definers of truth, St. Titus, by his witness, would implore us to counter with real truth. #

(The author is the 2015 Titus Brandsma Philippines awardee for Emerging Leadership in Journalism.)