Category: Access to Information

When oligarchs go shopping…

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CP 20 juillet 2016_EN

“IT IS a worldwide trend. From Turkey and Russia to China and India, new media empires are emerging, usually with governmental blessing. Their owners comply with capitalist laws of supply and demand and the need for technological development. But, at the same time, they take strict control of news coverage or replace journalistic content with entertainment.”

In its latest report, “When Oligarchs Go Shopping,” Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) looks at this curious, dangerous phenomenon. Excerpts from the report follow:

IMAGINE a world in which the mass media were the exclusive property of a handful of people, all business tycoons. Many people think that world has already arrived. Businessmen of every kind have been seized by the disturbing desire to buy up large numbers of major newspapers, TV channels and radio stations around the globe. No country, no continent – neither India, China, the United States nor Europe – seems to escape the appetite of these new oligarchs for media acquisitions.

Their latest feats include Jack Ma’s purchase of the South China Morning Post, one of the last champions of the free press in Hong Kong, a newspaper that did not hesitate to criticize the government in Beijing. Ma is the owner of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Where will these new media owners stop? Their ambition often matches their financial resources, which are limitless. In a recent book, Indian historian Nalin Mehta said his country, “the world’s biggest democracy,” has around 800 TV channels but all those that provide news coverage are owned by shadowy billionaires – including real estate barons, politicians and captains of industry – and that some of these channels are used to blackmail, promote personal interests and even launder money. “There is a coup underway in India,” writer and journalist Manu Joseph says. “Some people who are inconvenienced by democracy have taken over nearly all the country’s television news channels.”

Some of these billionaire businessmen boast of being able to make and unmake governments. Others enter into alliances with governments, offering them mass media support in return for economic favours. In all cases, their financial power combined with their control of media flagships gives them almost limitless influence, one far removed from the journalistic principles that their employees sometimes try to defend.

The victims of such unholy alliances include Turkey’s leading media, which are subjected to censorship that is much more insidious and sophisticated than the government’s usual repressive methods, censorship in which the oligarchs are accomplices.

“While the world is focused on the issue of jailed journalists in Turkey — almost all of whom are Kurds — the kiss of death to our profession has been bestowed by owners who consciously destroy editorial independence, fire journalists who voice scepticism and dissent and block investigative reporting3,” Yavuz Baydar wrote in 2013, while ombudsman of the daily Sabah after holding the same position with Milliyet.

Along with dozens of other journalists, he was fired for being too critical of the Erdogan government, which did not need to intervene because the media owners anticipated its wishes.

These new media oligarchs have prospered under Prime Minister and now President Erdogan, who anointed them and to whom they have remained loyal. “The problem is simple: one need only follow the money,” Baydar says. As in so many other countries, the leading media in Turkey have wound up in the pockets of businessmen active in such strategic sectors as telecommunications, banking and public works, a sector described by Baydar as a “fertile ground for carrot-and-stick policies.”

Media owners who support government policy can count on being rewarded with state contracts, licences, advertising and even tax concessions. The critical ones are silenced slowly and quietly. President Erdogan’s current “best friends” include such oligarchs as Ferit F. ?ahenk, the head of the very powerful Dogus Group (which controls NTV), Turgay Ciner, an energy sector billionaire who owns Haberturk TV and the Haberturk newspaper, and Yildirim Demirören, the CEO of an oil, gas, tourism and public works conglomerate who bought the prestigious big-circulation daily Milliyet in 2012.

Other media outlets have been bought up by pro-government oligarchs with disastrous consequences for media freedom. “Editorial content is strictly controlled by media bosses who have other business interests and are submissive to the government,” said Baydar. “With, or more often without, any direct government intervention, they impose self-censorship on a daily basis and silence colleagues who defend basic journalistic ethics.”

Furious with the way Milliyet “grovelled” before the government after it was taken over, the newspaper’s star columnist, Hasan Cemal, stormed out in 2013. The same year, thousands of Turks took to the street in protest against the government’s growing authoritarianism.

Dubbed “Occupy Gezi” after the Istanbul park that became its symbol, the protest movement held the international media spellbound for several weeks until forcibly crushed by the police. While all this was unfolding, Turkey’s leading TV channels contented themselves with broadcasting animal documentaries or debates on completely unrelated subjects. Their owners must have had other things on their minds.

Read RSF’s latest report “When Oligarchs Go Shopping” here.

PNP stats: 135 killed, 1,844 arrested in 2 weeks of Duterte war on drugs

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By the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

PCIJ. Killed, July 1-13, 2016

BY OFFICIAL POLICE DATA, from July 1 to 13 this year, the Duterte administration’s war on crime has already chalked up big, if macabre, numbers: 135 persons killed or about 10 persons a day on average, and 1,844 arrested or about 141 persons a day on average.

In two weeks’ time, the campaign has also nudged the “surrender” of 60,393 alleged drug users and 5,914 alleged drug pushers, apart from 43,026 houses “visited” by local and village officials to target and flush out suspects, according to official police reports obtained by the PCIJ.

But the PNP data show a curious ratio: Only one “drug pusher” for every 10 “drug users” have been located or compelled to surrender to the authorities in the last fortnight.

In contrast to the big numbers of those killed, arrested, or have “surrendered,” the police also reported only pithy volumes and values of illegal drugs seized in the operation — sachets and kilos of shabu, a sprinkling of marijuana, and just one tablet of the designer drug “Ecstasy.”

The total amount of the seizure is listed at “146,345 by estimated DDB value,” which presumably translates to P146.3 million. The PNP report, however, does not show a peso sign; neither does it state if the amount is in the thousands of pesos or some other currency.

PCIJ asked the PNP to clarify the matter but the officers contacted could not give any explanation as of posting time.

Shabu, by the latest published estimates of the DDB, could fetch at least a million pesos a kilo.

Interviewed by the PCIJ and GMANewsTV’s Investigative Documentaries staff, PNP’s chief, Director General Ronald ‘Bato’ M. dela Rosa, said ‘Oplan Double Barrel’ is the Duterte administration’s blueprint for its war on drugs.

PCIJ asked for a copy of whatever PNP document has been issued clarifying the goals, scope, guidelines, and protocols for the implementation of the anti-drug war but did not get any from dela Rosa.

Instead, the PNP head said that President Rodrigo R. Duterte would issue shortly an executive order creating an inter-agency committee that will take charge of the police, legal, social, health, and other myriad aspects of the war on drugs.

Dela Rosa added that the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service has also started to investigate complaints of alleged abuses by the police and other officials in specific operations that had led to the death of some alleged drug users and pushers.

For now, dela Rosa said ‘Oplan Double Barrel’ is “the big picture” in the anti-drug war. It supposedly involves unleashing “the upper barrel” – ‘Oplan HVT’ — to snare “high-value” and supply-side targets; and “the lower barrel” or ‘Oplan Tokhang,’ to flush out “low-value” and demand-side targets.

‘Tokhang’ is a combination of Visayan words “toktok” or to knock, and “hangyo” or to plead or request. ‘Tokhang’ was first launched in Davao City in 2012 under then Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte.

Local government units have adopted the campaign, but some have infused it with their own branding. The Quezon City government calls its campaign ‘Oplan Kapak,’ or short for “katok” and “pakiusap.” In Tanuan, Batangas, the mayor has required alleged drug users and pushers to take their “walk of shame” across the city, with posters declaring “Drug Addict Ako: Huwag Pamarisan (I am a Drug Addict. Don’t Follow my Example)” either hanging from their necks or taped to their clothes.

‘Accomplishments’

As of July 13, 2016, reports of the National Operations Center (NOC) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed these “accomplishments” of the new administration’s two-week-old war on drugs.

• 135 suspects killed, including two PNP members;
• 1,843 arrested, including 1,836 civilians, 6 foreign nationals, and 1 “government/elected official”; and
• 4,016 “surrendered”, including 4,011 civilians, 3 “government/elected officials”, 1 policeman, and 1 security guard.

Of the country’s 18 regions, no killings have been reported as of July 13 in only seven regions: the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga Peninsula, Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and Negros Island Region.

In the 11 other regions, however, the PNP reports showed that the bodies of alleged drug pushers have shown up in alarming numbers, notably:

• 55 killed in Central Luzon;
• 44 in Metro Manila;
• 17 in Calabarzon;
• 6 in Ilocos Region;
• 5 in Soccsksargen;
• 3 in the Bicol Region;
• 2 in Central Visayas;
• 1 in the Cordillera Administrative Region;
• 1 in the Caraga Region; and
• 1 in the Davao Region.

‘Hostile’ and ‘killed’

Media reports have quoted police authorities as saying that the drug suspects ended up dead because they resisted arrest or fought back – “nanlaban.” Two PNP reports on Oplan Tokhang in fact show a match between the figure of those killed and that of drug pushers who were “hostile” or had denied they were involved in the illegal trade.

Interestingly, the NOC report on its “Monitoring on Project Tokhang,” show “hostile” drug pushers in only four areas: Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Mimaropa, and Cordillera.

But according to another NOC report, “Monitoring on the Anti-Illegal Drugs Accomplishment,” which covers Oplan Tokhang during the same period, the fatalities are spread across 10 areas – which even excludes Mimaropa, which had the highest number of “hostile” drug suspects (124).

Metro Manila, which had only seven drug suspects listed as “hostile” in one report ended up with 44 fatalities under Oplan Tokhang in the other document. Central Luzon and Calabarzon also had no “hostile” drug suspects listed in the “Monitoring on Project Tokhang” report, yet according to the other NOC tally, they had the second and third highest number of dead respectively under the same police operation.

Alleged drug pushers

In any case, the PNP says that Project Tokhang has snared 5,914 “drug pushers” from July 1 to 13, including:

• 5,693 listed under the category of “voluntary surrender”;
• 86 under the category of “surrender of drugs”; and
• 135 under the category of “hostile/denial.”

In the meantime, a “surrenderees” tally of 4,016 is enrolled in “Monitoring on the Anti-Illegal Drugs Accomplishment.”

But the supplementary “Monitoring on Project Tokhang,” which draws the participation of local government units and barangay councils, showed much bigger numbers of “surrenderees.”

In this second report, the NOC said that from July 1 to 13, 2016, a total of 60,393 “drug users” have been located in the 18 regions of the country, but only 5,914 “drug pushers.”

The numbers indicate that only one “drug pusher” for every 10 “drug users” have been covered by Project Tokhang in the first two weeks of the government’s war on drugs.

In addition, the report said that as of last July 13, a total of 43,026 houses have been “visited” as part of Project Tokhang.

Alleged drug users

The 60,393 “drug users” who have been located or identified across the country in the last two weeks, included:

• 2,903 in areas covered by the National Capital Region Police Command (Metro Manila);
• 1,348, Police Regional Office 1 (Ilocos Region);
• 416, PRO 2 (Cagayan Valley);
• 6,650, PRO 3 (Central Luzon);
• 1,075 PRO 4A (Calabarzon);
• 391, PRO 4B (Mimaropa);
• 1,553, PRO 5 (Bicol Region);
• 307, PRO 6 (Western Visayas);
• 4,472, PRO 7 (Central Visayas);
• 962, PRO 8 (Eastern Visayas);
• 5,869, PRO 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula);
• 20,061, PRO 10 (Northern Mindanao);
• 4,801, PRO11 (Davao Region);
• 338, PRO 12 (Soccsksargen);
• 5,700, PRO 13 (Caraga);
• 921, PRO-Cordillera (Cordillera Administrative Region);
• 153, PRO-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; and
• 2,473, PRO 18 (Negros Island Region).

Houses ‘visited’

The 43,026 “houses visited” under Project Tokhang consisted of big numbers for certain areas:

• 7,663 houses in Zamboanga Peninsula;
• 5,939 in Northern Mindanao;
• 4,672 in Central Luzon;
• 4,233 in Metro Manila;
• 4,077 in Caraga;
• 2,971 in Central Visayas;
• 2,249 in Calabarzon; and
• 2,227 in Eastern Visayas.

In contrast, fewer houses have been “visited” in these regions from July 1 to 13, 2016:

• 1,712 houses in Bicol Region;
• 1,704 in Ilocos Region;
• 1,530 in Davao Region;
• 1,239 in the Cordillera Administrative Region;
• 668 in Mimaropa; 541 in Negros Island Region;
• 474 in Western Visayas;
• 442 in Cagayan Valley;
• 416 in Soccsksargen; and
• 269 in ARMM.

Drugs seized

Finally, as part of the “results of operation” of its war on drugs, the various PNP regional offices reported the seizure or surrender of relatively small volumes of illegal drugs during the same period. These included:

• 2,906 sachets of shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride;
• 230 kilos of shabu;
• 1,094 grams of shabu;
• 26 packs of shabu;
• 57 sachets of marijuana;
• 42 marijuana leaves;
• 33 marijuana rolls;
• 10 marijuana plants; and
• 1 Ecstasy tablet.

The PNP report put the “estimated DDB value” of this cache of seized illegal drugs at only “146.345.

All the PNP regional offices reported that they had seized sachets of shabu, which is also known as the accessible drug of choice of the less affluent.

Yet the 230 kilos of shabu listed in the report were apparently confiscated from only two operations conducted in Metro Manila (50 kilos) and in Cagayan Valley (180 kilos).

The seizure of the single tablet of Ecstasy — “the drug of choice of the rich” — was credited to the PNP regional office in Calabarzon. — PCIJ, July 14, 2016

President Duterte’s war on crime: A nuclear explosion of violence

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By Atty. Jose Manuel ‘Chel’ I. Diokno
National Chairman, Free Legal Assistance Group
Trustee, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
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PRESIDENT DUTERTE’S war on crime has spawned a nuclear explosion of violence that is spiraling out of control and creating a nation without judges, without law, and without reason.

Do we really want to give the man with the gun the power to judge who are criminals and to kill them?

To decide who is bad and who is good, who deserves to live and who deserves to die? We might as well disband our courts, dissolve the Department of Justice, and abolish Congress. For there really is no need for law when the barrel of the gun dispenses justice.

The bandwagon that the President has created is a bandwagon of hate – a mob mentality that not only condones but encourages the taking of lives “because they deserve it.”

Yes, drug pushers destroy lives. Yes, criminals behave like animals. But are those who kill them any better? And will the killing stop there?

Our people have seen what a mob can do in the hands of a tyrant who knows no law but his own. Lest we forget, the first person that Marcos executed was a drug pusher. But did he stop there? By the time he was ousted, he was responsible for killing thousands upon thousands of people whose only fault was their belief in justice, the rule of law, and human rights.

President Duterte, do not kill in my name. That is not your mandate, that is not what you were elected for. Yes, go after the drug cartels and criminal syndicates, the corrupt, the criminals among us. But do it as an officer of the law you have sworn to uphold as a lawyer and a President. — July 8, 2016

Duterte Revisited: What he said in 2001 about drugs, vigilantes

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By Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews

Duterte Revisited

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 June) — Days before President-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared a boycott of the media on June 2, 2016, MindaNews had asked the first Mindanawon to govern this country of 100.98 million, for a sit-down interview, as it had asked him in the past, on major issues confronting this city of 1.63 million.

Arrangements were made with Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Duterte’s Executive Assistant, for “A Day with the President-elect” where the interview would be done after lunch (which is usually when his day begins) and the MindaNews team would follow him in his next schedules until his day would end at dawn.

June 2, however, turned out to be his last press conference. Immediately thereafter, journalists (national, international, and yes, local) were barred from entering the compound of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Panacan, where the Presidential Guesthouse (dubbed under the Arroyo administration as “Malacañang of the South” and now popularly referred to as “Panacañang”) is located.

When he will lift his boycott, no one can say for now. He has repeatedly said in speeches after June 2 that he would not talk to media until the end of his six-year term.

In lieu of what would have been a Q and A that MindaNews would have published in the run-up to his oath-taking as President, we are re-publishing this Q and A done in November 2001, shortly after Duterte announced in his Sunday TV program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” (From the Masses, For the Masses), the names of 500 persons who he said could help the city in its fight against drugs. At the time of the interview, at least four of those on the list had been killed or ended up dead. Another 17 suspected drug pushers and celfone snatchers, four of them minors, were eventually slain soon after.

Between 2001 and 2016, Duterte had been investigated several times by the Commission on Human Rights, including a 2009 probe by then CHR chair and now Senator Leila de Lima, and other international human rights groups. But no charges have been filed against him.

Fifteen years had lapsed since MindaNews ran this interview with Duterte, who prefers to be called “Mayor of the Philippines” instead of “President.”

In his own words, here is Mayor-President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, interviewed in 2001 but speaking like he does today.
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Duterte Revisited: What he said in 2001
By Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
First of Three Parts
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28 November 2001: “Pinaka-unfair sa lahat ng krimen ang drugs”
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MANY in Davao City were “shocked,” to say the least, to see their controversial mayor on national television late Tuesday night last week, talking tough (his expletives unedited), toting a gun and kicking the corpse of a suspected drug pusher reportedly killed by the vigilante group, “Davao Death Squad” (DDS).

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, 56, knew he’d be featured on “The Probe Team” but didn’t watch it, claiming he doesn’t want to watch himself on TV or listen to the radio.

Duterte has repeatedly said he doesn’t give a damn what his critics say about him. But among millions of viewers that Tuesday night, the only person whose feedback he cared about was Sara, his only daughter who is studying Law in Manila.

“She said it was bad enough that the expletives I uttered were not edited… She said ‘you were portrayed somehow as being linked to the DDS by the way you framed your answers,'” Duterte said.

“I was quick to point out to my daughter that if it’s a matter of government abetting the killings or having sponsored the slayings or encouraged or had taken initiatives, it’s absolutely false because the mayorship or I had nothing to do with it. Pero sinasakyan ko… because to be really truthful and honest about it, I would rather see criminals dead than innocent victims die, being killed senselessly.”

He then cited several cases of killings by people, including minors, under the influence of drugs.

Last month, Duterte announced in his Sunday TV show the names of 500 people whom he said could help the city in its fight against drugs. At least four of those on the list had been killed or ended up dead.

At least 17 suspected drug pushers and celfone snatchers, four of them minors, were killed by suspected vigilantes last month. Since 1995, at least 150 persons have been reported to have been felled by the vigilantes.

That his name is being linked with the DDS does not seem to bother Duterte.

A government prosecutor (from 1977 to 1986), Duterte was named OIC Vice Mayor of Davao City in 1986, was mayor from 1988 to 1998, moved on to become congressman of the first district and reclaimed the mayoralty this year.

The day after “The Probe Team” featured the vigilante killings, Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla wrote a pastoral letter, “Thou shall not kill,” made public last Sunday through the masses in all parishes. The letter finally broke the “long silence” of the Church on the vigilante killings in the city.

But who are the vigilantes? Is Duterte behind them? Is he their godfather?

Duterte sat down with MindaNews’ Carolyn O. Arguillas one evening last week to answer these and more.

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Excerpts from the interview follow:

Q. Why did you make that list public?
A. I was appealing to the patriotism, the civic spirit I might rekindle in the minds, hearts of these people. (Also) to put them on guard (that) we know something about you (so) you stop it. Second, the community must know. For example, neighbor mo..

Q. But it’s being viewed as witchhunting. A number of those on the list…
A. No it’s not withchunting. There was a process that we followed. Of the five families who were outraged by my announcement and who came to me really angry, after I showed them the proof…. yung isa gusto pa nya suntukin sa harap ko yung anak nya… Besides, I laid the predicate in my announcement. I said I’d like to mention the names of persons here in the city… who can be of help to us if they would just be patriotic enough to help government and try to save the generations from being devastated by drugs.

Q. But the list, it is said, spared the rich, that most of those on the list are poor, a number of them minors…
A. It’s not a matter of minor or a person of age. That’s what I was trying to explain to ‘The Probe Team.’ Because..that guy who shot and killed that girl (whose celfone was snatched inside a taxi), he was only 17. When the mind is devastated by drugs, the age doesn’t really make a difference, whether you are 17, 50 or 70. When you go crazy, you go crazy. (Age) does not count anymore. Most of these are aged 18, 19, either sinasaksak nila yung mga estudyante dyan … or binabaril….

Q. I think one of the reasons why you are being linked to the DDS is because the killings stopped during the term of (then Mayor Benjamin) de Guzman and returned when you came back.
A. Hindi baya. Remember that de Guzman filed a case against this priest because he declared to the world that de Guzman is the head of a death squad that at that time killed two snatchers? I hope that they would temper their conclusions about me. Pero kung sabihin mo na naawa ako (sa victims), sinabi ko naman eh, do not ask for a tear. I never shed tears for mga ganong klaseng tao.

Q. Is that the solution? Finishing them off?
A. No it’s not. Killing can never be the solution to what ails this country.

Q. What’s the solution?
A. ..we have to try to mature as a nation and add more policemen. For example, for the city of Davao, so I can patrol and build a case against them individually, I would need about 5,000 policemen which we cannot have, and improve police methods, yung mga night vision and maybe listening devices which unfortunately we cannot afford for the next 10 years or so.

Duterte on Killings

Q. There was a dialogue between teenage gang members and some legislators. The teeners said some of them got hooked to drugs because of policemen pushing drugs, that they became indebted to the policemen so they became user-pusher.
A. I do not know of any policeman direkta na ganon. But if (there) is, then he’s a dead policeman…

Q. A UN agency on drug control has said the city government should..
A. I don’t give a sh_t what they say. I don’t have a treaty with them.

Q. You’re not bothered about people refering to you as the godfather of DDS?
A. No. Because it’s not true. So if the truth will set you free, I am free because there is no such thing as a government-sponsored killing in the city.

Q. Who are the vigilantes?
A. I really do not know. A guy who went public in a newspaper interview said he’s a former rebel and he claims it is composed of former rebels and policemen. I even suffered a rebuke (that the) mayor is putting up a time limit that is not realistic. So may timetable pala sila… their own timetable.

Q. If you’re saying it’s not you, then who’s behind these vigilantes?
A. Yung mga tatay na hindi tumatanggap ng ganon. Maybe they were just waiting for somebody na kakampi nila dyan who also nurtures this kind of outrage sa drugs…

Q. Rich?
A. Maybe. You cannot move if you do not have the money. In all probability, these are people who have the means to pay (the vigilantes) at kung totoo yung sinasabi ng lumabas sa newspaper, maybe yung may tinamaan talaga (yung mga anak)… Ako personally, personally ha — not as mayor because may oath of office ka pagka mayor ka, you protect the Constitution, follow the Constitution, protect everyone’s rights — but if I were an ordinary citizen of this city tapos tinamaan ang anak ko, maybe ganon din ang gagawin ko. Talagang hihirit ako, put–nang yan hihiritan ko yan. I mean it’s not really fair. It’s not fair… Rich or poor, ang lahat ng efforts mo sa buhay nandon sa anak mo… Lahat tayo, corny man pakinggan, we do not even live, we exist for our children…. lahat ng efforts mo, pera mo nandoon sa bata, eskuela …… Mas gusto ko pa yang kidnapping pati hold-up. Ikidnap mo anak ko, isauli mo lang, maghingi ka ng pera, babayaran kita, then the next time I will just really guard my children with my life… Put–na itong drugs, pagsinabit mo ang anak ko, I have lost the child forever. He loses his mind, he loses his future…you leave with me a goddamn criminal in the making, kasi pag wala nang pera, wala nang manakaw sa akin, magnanakaw yan sa iba, maghoholdup sa iba, magre-rape yan, maghohostage… Pinaka-unfair sa lahat ng krimen ang drugs. Meron pa dito sa Davao, hindi ko lang sabihin ang (pangalan), well-to-do, ni-rape nya yung sister, pinasok nya sa kwarto, pag pasok ng tatay pati nanay, tinutukan nya ng (cal.) 45 na baril… I’m sure pag nabasa nya (ito), malaman nya na alam ko.

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DUTERTE REVISITED: What he said in 2001

By Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
Second of Three Parts
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29 November 2001: “I will even shoot my son in front of you”
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Q. They’re saying your son, your relatives are also involved in drugs.
A. ..Pati ako raw… Nag-research ako, and I studied the matter very carefully, seriously. Sinabi ko sa anak ko (Paolo), ‘wag na wag kang pumasok dyan sa put–nang droga na yan kasi gagawain kitang example. Kung kaya kong mag-resign (nung) nanuntok ka lang, kaya kitang patayin kung…hiyain mo ako.’ I resigned (as congressman) for a very trivial reason…. nanuntok (ang anak ko) ng security guard tapos inatake ako kay hindi maka-file (ng kaso) kasi daw congresman ang tatay….di mag-resign tayo so you can file charges. Unfortunately, nobody accepted my resignation but I was ready to go down.

This time I’m ready. Just produce a credible and true witness (that my son is involved in drugs) and I’m going to resign as mayor of Davao City and I will shoot my son in front of you. Siguraduhin mo lang yan kay pag hindi, ikaw talaga babarilin ko. Yan ang trade off ko sa iyo. I will resign from the mayorship anytime. I don’t have any illusions dyan sa mayor mayor na ‘yan. I can always run again and win. I can sacrifice a few years. I can lose my child. Dalawa yang anak ko (na lalaki). May mga apo na ako na lalaki. I can lose (my son)…. Ngayon kung maniwala yung mga tao (that my son is into drugs) bahala ka. My son is there, you can ask him to go for a drug test .. but I will not insult my son by asking him publicly so kung sino yung interesado, kausapin ninyo anak ko. Just produce a true, credible witness against my son and I will resign. And I will even shoot him in front of you.

Q. Were you ever asked by Malacanang about the vigilante killings here?
A. Wala. Well, I know my style. In this game, you cannot afford to (be on) low profile (because if you do that), walang mangyari… Look at the three years (1998-2001). What did it produce? A very resurgent drug situation. So I had to go back all over again. Kaya nga sinabi ko kay (Local Governments) Sec. (Joey) Lina when they offered me the regional chairmanship of the Peace and Order Council — now I can make this public — I declined… Sabi ko, ‘maghanap na lang kayo (ng iba) dyan because you might not like my style. I have my own style of doing it.’ Sabi nila, ‘well as long as your style is legal and good then proceed.’ Sabagay, legal gud talaga yang ginagawa ko..

Q. Let me go back to the solution. Maturing as a people takes so long. What is the immediate solution?
A. I think we would require from kindergarten (to) college, a lecture everyday on the evil of drugs..

Q. Where is the supply of illegal drugs here coming from?
A. Cotabato and Marawi but we suspect that there’s a factory nearby which I’m not at liberty to divulge to you right now.

Q. Within the city?
A. No. Peripheral cities.

Q. Shabu?
A. .this guy who’s manufacturing it knows that I know and a lot of us in the law enforcement know.

Q. So how come you’re not raiding it if you know…
A. Well, one of these days, kung na-DDS yan, ah hindi ako yan..

Q. .. if you know, why don’t you go after him?
A. Because you have to have evidence. You cannot just approach him anywhere and everywhere. May militia ito na sarili nya. Ganyan man talaga yang mga druglords na big-time. Ito ang pinaka. As a matter of fact, pag ito ang nakuha ko, puede na akong mag-retire pagka mayor..

Q. How bad is the problem of drugs here?
A. Very bad. Look at the list of 500… validated yan, 250 of them have been convicted, on parole or on bail. Yan ngang mahirap sa problema sa drugs…kasi pag-evaluate, assess na kung puede ba sya sa probation, good behavior is enough….automatic ang probation…. paglabas, babalik na naman (sa droga).

Q. What about rehabilitation? You don’t believe in rehab?
A. Wala tayo dito… next year baka maghingi ako kay Presidente… for a rehab dito sa Davao, regional (rehabilitation center). Because a rehab for that kind of, actually it’s a sickness eh, you would need a prison. Otherwise mag-eskapo yan.

Q. A prison?
A. Because when they are caught, they are not tried (in court)… they now opt to be treated… pag nilagay mo yan sa bintana na walang (rehas), a manibat na. Preso gyud na. Presohin mo talaga.

Duterte on Son

Q. How big will your rehabilitation center be?
A. …maybe I would need a facility good for 300 persons. Hindi halfway house. It’s really a rehab center and it’s almost like a prison.

Q. But rehab centers now don’t go into preso-preso..
A. Ah magsibat yan. Remember I was prosecutor for 11 years before I became a mayor. Sisibat yan…

Q. You were seen on TV kicking the corpse of..
A. Review again. Review again.

Q. I saw you on TV.
A. Nah, nah. May granada yon. Ano ako, gago, mag-upo ako..eh pag pumutok yan sa mukha ko?.. Kaya binaligtad ko yung katawan, nakita mo yung granada?

…Review the footage again, please. Hindi ako ganon kagago na may camera na magsipa. Ginanon ko kasi sabi, ‘Sir, ma-o nang gagunit ug granada.’

Q. In the meantime that the vigilantes are busy, what is your police doing?
A. Maybe they are also going after the vigilantes. Excuse me ha, yung footage na yon sayop yun. Tingnan mo uli. Binaligtad ko yung katawan because may granada. Eh kung mag-upo ako tapos ganunin ko yung katawan ko eh kung puputok yon? Mabuti nakatindig, at least pag nakita mo yung granada, di mulukso ka…

Q. October was the month of the killings. What was the feedback direct to you? More criticisms? More praises?
A. I don’t give a sh-t. I don’t give a sh-t whether they are for or against me. I was elected by the people after I promised them that I would go after kidnappers, druglords, drug pushers, holduppers and rapists… That’s already a non-issue to me. What they say for or against me, I don’t give a damn, I don’t give a sh-t. Tapos na yan. What I should do now is to honor my commitment because the people voted for me on the basis of my commitment and my promise to them… All things come naturally, infrastructure, public works. You can project the things you need. Crime? Can you project how many people will be contaminated by drugs, how many will be killed, how many girls will be raped?

Q. What’s the drug profile here like? Does it cut across..
A. Malala dito. Even professionals…Hayun, nasira ang mga pamilya.

Q. You said you’re not behind it but “sinasakyan” mo lang. But due process requires.
A. Due process is the thing that I should be following when I do it. Alam mo itong mga vigilantes….and it is really true for any human behavior…. sabihin mo ‘wag mong gawin yan,’ pag gusto nyang gawin, gagawin man talaga nya yan. Sabihin mo ‘hoy mga gago, mga buang, gawin nyo ito’ tapos ayaw naman nilang gawin, wala. So bahala kayo. Pag nahuli, sige, go ahead, kayong mga drug pushers, magtago na kayo, may mga gago on the loose pero kung mahuli ko kayong mga vigilantes, then that’s it. You also go to prison.

Q. You’re not gonna shoot them?
A. Well, I might just give them a dose of their own medicine. Ang sinasabi ko lang dito sa mga vigilantes, mga put–na na ito, ang problema ngayon, baka ipalusot ninyo yang patay ninyo, na pumatay lang kayo ng tao para sabihin lang ninyo na ‘ah drug pusher yan, druglord yan.’ Yan ang mahirap. One of these days I will catch up with them (vigilantes) and they’ll have to pay the price….because… whether it’s true or not, it’s already a crime but what makes it doubly sad for all of us is baka ang pinatay nila hindi nga (drug pusher). Then by the time I catch up…

—————————————————————————————————–
DUTERTE REVISITED: What he said in 2001
By Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
Last of Three Parts
—————————————————————————————————–
November 30, 2001: “Totally, totally, totally unacceptable”
—————————————————————————————————–

Q. It seems like some other local chief executives are following your example.
A. Copycats. (Pause). Ah, example? Eh kung pinapatay ninyo, gago kayo, bawal yan. Salita lang, hanggang salita ka lang dapat dyan tapos let the others do it if they want. But if they are caught, again it’s your duty to punish them. Sakyan mo na lang….

Q. You’re not afraid? That druglords would..
A. I am, I am….there’s a report. I do not want to make it public, I do not want sympathies. But you always tread on dangerous paths… Kung wa tay suerte, di ganon na nga but I said I do what I have to do.

Q. If I were a druglord, I’d probably target you.
A. Mabuti yan kasi ako nakatutok rin sa iyo.

Q. I mean, if we follow their… you’re an obstacle.
A. Yes, because they’re losing business dito sa Davao…. They cannot really be based here — walang homegrown na criminal syndicate dito sa Davao — yan mapagyabang ko yan. Kidnapper, wala. Sa labas yan sila… sa peripheral cities. Yang kanilang pasok, they utilize the teenagers kasi alam nila teenagers dili mapreso eh…. always minors yang mga runners nila kasi pag minors, pagdating sa korte, suspended ang trial. The minor now goes to a halfway house, magsisibat yan or if at all they are caught… halos lahat na nahuli sa drugs… may perang pang bail (so) labas na naman yan sila, the following day laro naman. So if you’re doing brisk business in Davao, maski ganon ang delivery system mo, konti-konti lang, below 200 kasi bailable ang below 200 grams, masasaktan ka. And they (druglords) also correctly read me – nagpaplano rin ako sa kanila. Maybe one of these days, our paths will cross suddenly. It’s either their skin or mine… But I just want to assure everybody that there is no such thing as government-sponsored killing, initiated, abetted or encouraged by government. That is utterly false, I swear to God. Walang budget ang gobyerno para ganon.

Q. Narcopolitics is…
A. It will come.

Q. It’s not here?
A. I fear that one of these days it will just really come. Pagkaganon ang kinita nila, they can now support a mayor who’s a fencesitter…. Sa totoo lang, sino mang official nagsalita about drugs? Puro lip service…. ako, at least may ginagawa ako dito maski salita lang (na) “patayin ko kayo.”

Q. How much money on the average, daily, changes hands in the city in illegal drugs?
A. P600,000 to P700,000 daily. …may nahuli ngayon o yesterday, two kilos….I just came in from Manila. They will be presented tomorrow. Eh kung totoo yan, eh di pinatay ko na yan, laliman ka two kilos?

Q. (Laughs) Kay wala ka man, you were in Manila.
A. Cellular lang man na. Hello, hello..(laughs). Bu-ng. Pataka lang ka (laughs)

Q. P600,000 to 700,000? That’s a lot of money.
A. That’s a lot of battered brains. Kita mo, the city is cosmopolitan, 500 yung naglalaro dito, yung nasa listahan..half of that or a third of that validated na.

Q. Of the 500 on the list, how many approached you, aside from the families you mentioned.
A. More than a third of them naghingi ng tawad and … wanted their names delisted. Sabi ko, ‘no, your name stays there. All you have to do is to behave and I assure you nothing will happen.’ Because hindi naman talaga siguro papatay ang mga DDS kung wala ka na, gago naman tong mga vigilantes kung ganon. Sabi ko nga, pag nagkamali kayo na pinapatay na inosente eh di
pag inabot ko kayo, sila puy akong putulan ug ulo.

Q. Kung dili diay inosente, okay ra?
A. Hindi naman pero mas grabe kung (inosente). Doble nga eh. The fact that its’ being done is already sad. But to do it for personal reasons tapos i-attribute mo lang na drugs tapos wala naman pala, then you’re really sh-t.

Q. Isn’t this a slap on the face of the police?
A. No. The mayor has the operational control of the police. It’s a slap on me.

Q. It’s a slap on your face.
A. I admit full responsibility for the failure of the police to catch the vigilantes and

Duterte on Drugs

Q. And the drug pushers as well?
A. At least naghina na. That’s what I promised the people. I said you vote for me, I’ll do this. And sinakyan ko yung mga gago dyan (vigilantes). Maybe encouraged sila because bumalik na ako and they know that hardliner ako dyan sa crime. Sinakyan nila ako, sinakyan ko rin sila. Alang-alang magsabi ako na ‘o mga vigilantes, wag kayong pumatay, yung mga drug pushers dyan, hayaan lang ninyo, kung sa mahuli lang, kung hindi mahuli pasensyahan na lang.’ Ganon? Ah, patay ang syudad kung ganyan.. Lubong. With 1,600 policemen, 255,000 square hectares, 1.4 million population, you expect the police to solve every crime, not only to solve but build a case against each and every one of them? Ah, naghahanap ka ng langit nyan. That’s utopia. That’s Republic of Utopia. It’s not a republic anywhere in this planet.

Q. But we’re talking human rights here.
A. Human rights is there. Pero most of all, yang human rights is really for the defenseless, the hopeless, yung wala na silang matakbuhan. That’s my governance.

Q. Why do you like to be more chief of police than chief executive?
A. Because from my experience, if the place is not stable, forget about progress and development. I do not want to pull my own chair but to a modest degree, alam nyo na yan dito sa Davao, bakit gumanon tayo ngayon? Because I got rid of the kidnappers. I killed them all. Ah yang kidnappers, talagang I admitted it in public sa kampanya, pinutulan ko talaga ng ulo yung mga walanghiyang yan.

Q. Whatever you say, some people would still look at you as godfather…
A. Over and above all these loose talks, over and above all these allegations about these killings, about me as godfather, grandfather, uncle or whatever, the father of DDS, basta drugs, kidnapping, hold-up… rape tapos pinatay, those crimes are really unacceptable to me. Lalo na yang drugs because I’ve shown to you the dimensions of its inequity. You leave with me a problem which I have to solve for a lifetime…. Iwanan mo ako ng anak na criminal, na I do not know if he would rape his own mother, which is always happening everyday, pakinggan mo lang yang telebisyon, he will hostage his own sister, his own son, put a knife at the neck of an infant.

Ang drugs… totally, totally, and if I may say it for the third time, totally totally unacceptable sa akin, kaya pag andyan ka, ah, lalo na kung druglord ka, bigtime pusher ka, if you’re into kidnapping, if you are into hold-ups tapos ikaw mang-rape ka dyan.. if we happen to cross paths, if our journeys in life would cross each other, ah pasensya, pasensyahan na lang tayo. The President has declared that drugs is a national security problem… The Philippines may be poor… underdeveloped but it’s the only country I have and I love my country….pag this is the survival of my country, you go first… wag yung community, not the innocent people, not the families …

Q. This emphasis on ‘totally, totally totally unacceptable,’ where is this coming from? I mean, just to let the readers understand, what is your basis? A direct experience? Your son’s experience or what?
A. Well lahat na. No my son, wala, I can assure you (he’s not involved in drugs) otherwise I would resign. Yung unfairness…. Ayoko ng kidnapping. Ayoko gani yang magkapera ka sa mundong ito na hindi ka man lang mapagod, you make a living out of the expense of, specially the poor people. I don’t give a sh-t about the AB crowd. They can sniff heroin and shabu, they can afford it. Itong mahihirap, ito yung tinatamaan na talagang tama na wallop. Sila yung mga … very easy, vulnerable targets. Look, read again the newspapers. Before, every night may patay na taxi driver. Why, because they’re the most vulnerable targets. You don’t have money for the night for your shabu, okay, para ka ng taxi. You know he has the money, you can direct the guy to any place in Davao, secluded, silent, puede mong patayin kasi nakatalikod eh. O ngayon, may pinatay pa ba? See? From every night to nothing. Sabi ko totally, totally, totally because total ang focusing ko dyan. Sabi ko mahuli rin kita. One of these days, you watch out…just be patient, sabi nyo talagang malaki, I will get one but I will crucify him in front of the community. Maybe siguro that would be the first time that you can attribute something (to me) na ginagawa ng DDS. Pag talagang malaking-malaki na, ako na personally, wag na yung DDS. Tumabi kayo dyan, ako na mismo ang papapel, ako na ang magpahambug.

Q. How do you want history to remember you?
A. Simple. I did my duty, period. I did what I promised to the people, period. And I tried.

———————————————————————————————————
Duterte on Leadership . PCIJ:MindaNews

Editor’s note: Fifteen years later, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is assuming the post as 16th President of the Philippines, the first Mindanawon to lead the country. The rehabilitation center he promised – the Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents does not resemble a prison. Before the city took over its operations, it was called Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents and was run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development Region XI with the support of the Regional Council for Welfare of Children & Youth.)

POOLED EDITORIAL: The Prez and The Press

Davinci Maru

NEWS organizations, student publications, and citizen advocates are publishing a pooled editorial today that tackles critical issues concerning on press freedom, the long-overdue passage of the Freedom of Information law, and incoming president Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial statement on the media killings.

Here is the full text of the editorial made by journalists from various media agencies in English, Filipino, and Bisaya.

THE PREZ AND THE PRESS

REGRETTABLY, the conversation between President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and the news media has turned sharp and shrill. All but lost in the noise is the two parties’ common duty in law and tradition to serve and to inform the Filipino people on issues, events and policies that affect their interest and welfare.

A president—all at once the chief executive, fount of foreign policy, manager of the national household, guardian of peace and order, commander of the uniformed services, and arbiter of policy conflicts—is the most important pivot of news and policy in the land. The President is mandated by law to lead the nation and to promote transparency, accountability, and good governance.

But the Constitution also upholds the citizens’ rights to free speech, free press, free expression, and peaceable assembly. It guarantees as well their right to due process, equality before the law, access to information, justice, and life.

As “the people’s private eye in the public arena,” the news media serve as custodian and gatekeeper of some of these rights. It’s a task that must be accomplished, and the President-elect’s predecessors as well as the nation’s journey from democracy to dictatorship and back illustrate why and how we must inquire into, inveigh against, and investigate questionable public officials and agencies, on the citizens’ behalf.

Thus, despite his vexation with those he calls the “lowlifes” and the “mouthpieces” in the news media, we must at all times cover him, his actions, and his statements. In truth, the news media must report more—and better—about him, his policies and his actions, with our reports guided by the best standards of accuracy, fairness and context.

This we must do even as we note at least two disturbing “messages” from the President-elect.

First, by saying that “corrupt journalists … vultures of journalism can die for all I care [because] you’re asking for it,” he mocks the memory of 172 journalists (at latest count) killed in the line of duty since democracy’s rebirth in 1986. The last report filed by a majority of those slain journalists precisely exposed crime and corruption, the same social ills that he says he wants to curb. Sadly, not a single mastermind or principal suspect in these murders, including state agents, local warlords, and criminal elements, have been held to account.

Second, whether intended or not, his volcanic language has dampened, indeed chilled, the daily reportage, so that journalists with valid, if testy, questions are seemingly forced to eat expletives by way of a response.

To be sure, corruption in the news media is as real as the 16-million vote that secured the victory of the President-elect. To be sure, corruption afflicts both individuals and agencies in the news media, and has evolved into a subculture with a language all its own.

As anywhere else, however, corruption in the news media is a supply-demand chain. One solution offers a key role for the incoming administration: Slay it at the source. The government’s own media agents, as well as politicians and corporate PRs who offer more than stories to get favorable coverage or to spike bad news, must, in the President-elect’s words, “stop it.” Another solution calls for quick action from media managers: Provide better pay and protection for journalists.

But here’s the thing: The institutional capture of the news media by politicians has begun in some parts of the country. Local politicians and their families have acquired ownership and control of print and broadcast media agencies, and certain local government units have bought block-time segments using public funds. The corruption of the news media thus also involves partisan political interests driving editorial processes—as the President-elect knows full well.

Yet for all the supposed differences, the news media and the President-elect have complete agreement on one factor: the urgency of a Freedom of Information Law. The issuance of an FOI executive order on Day One of his presidency should prevent the 17th Congress from tarrying in its task.

An FOI Law will provide the necessary institutional and legal framework for full and true functional links between transparency and accountability in government, and for the right of all Filipinos to access information in order to take part in nation-building.

We in the news media wish the incoming administration success in all its endeavors. As journalists and as citizens, we commit not only to do journalism right and better, but also to uphold and defend free speech, free press, free expression, and the people’s right to know.

 

ANG PANGULO AT ANG PRESS

NAKALULUNGKOT na kailan lang ay naging matalim at maanghang ang palitan ng pahayag ni President-elect Rodrigo Duterte at ng mga taga-media. Naipit sa usapang ito ang tungkulin ng dalawang panig, sa batas at sa kasaysayan, na kapwa magsilbi at magbigay ng impormasyon sa mga mamamayan ukol sa mga isyu, pangyayari, at patakaran na apekado ang kanilang interes at kagalingan.

Ang Pangulo — chief executive ng pamahalaan, bukal ng patakarang panlabas, tagapangasiwa ng pondong bayan, punong-bantay ng kapayapaan, pinuno ng sandatahang lakas at pulisya, at arbiter ng magkatunggaling pakatakaran — ang pinakamapagpasyang focus ng balita sa buong bayan. Sa batas, mandato niya ang mamuno at magtaguyod ng transparency, accountability, at mahusay na pamahalaan

Kasabay nito, itinataguyod din ng Saligang Batas ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan– free speech, free press, free expression, at peaceable assembly. Ginagarantiya din ng Konstituyon ang karapatan ng lahat ng Pilipino sa due process, pagkapantay-pantay sa batas, access to information, katarungan. at buhay.

Bilang “private eye” ng bayan sa public arena, ang news media ay nagsisilbing tanod at tagapangalaga ng ilan sa mga karapatang ito. Tungkulin ito na dapat gampanan ng mga taga-media. Sa dantaong paglalakabay ng Pilipinas mula demokrasya tungo sa diktadurya at balik dmokrasya, pinagtibay na ito ng news media. Ito ang dahilan kung bakit kinakailangang magsuri, magbusisi, at mag-imbestiga ang media ng mga opisyal at tanggapan ng pamahalaan, sa ngalan ng taumbayan.

Ito rin ang dahilan kung bakit nakatutok ng walang humpay ang news media sa bawat pahayag at aksyon ng Pangulo, sa kabila ng kanyang nasabing pagka-inis sa mga tinatawag niyang “lowlife” at “mouthpiece” sa hanay ng media. Ang totoo ay dapat mag-ulat ng mas pursigido at mas magaling ang news media tungkol kay President-elect Duterte at sa kanyang mga patakaran at hakbang, ayon sa mahusay na panuntunan ng accuracy, fairness, at context sa lahat ng balita at kwento nito.

Ito ang dapat gawin ng news media sa gitna ng dalawang nakababahalang “mensahe” ni President-elect Duterte.

Una, aniya niya, ang mga “corrupt journalists” daw, “kaya namamatay ‘yan… karamihan dyan nababayaran na o sobrahan nila ang atake… Hinihingi ‘nyo, pumapasok kayo sa illegal.If you are a vulture of journalism, that’s not my problem.”
Sa mensaheng ito, tila kinukutya ang ala-ala ng 172 journalists, ayon sa huling bilang, na pinaslang in the line of duty mula nang maibalik ang demokrasya nuonbg 1986. Ang huling ulat ng mrami mga napatay ay exposes ukol sa krimen at katiwalian — mga problemang bayan na nais mismong masawata ni President-elect Duterte. Nakakalulungkot na hanggang ngayon, wala ni isa mang mastermind o pangunahing suspek sa mga pagpatay na ito, kabilang na ang ilang ahente ng gobyerrno, warlord, at kriminal, ang naikulong at naparusahan na.

Ikalawa, sinasadya man o hindi, ito ang pahiwatig ng kanyang mala-bulkang pananalita: Dapat mag-ingat at mahintakutan ang mga nagbabalita. Sinasadya man o hindi, ang pahiwatig sa mga mamamahayag: Mahalaga man ngunit mapanuri ang tanbong, asahang bulyaw at mura ang aanihing sagot.

Walang duda, problema ang korapsyon sa news media. Kasing linaw ito ng 16 na milyong boto na nakuha ni President-elect sa nakaraang halalan. Ang totoo, hindi lang ilang indibidwal kundi pati ilang tanggapan ng media ay nasasangkot sa ganitong masamang gawi.

Pero kahit saan man tumingin, ang korapsyon sa media ay isang supply-demand chain din. May papel sa isang solusyon sa problem ang Duterte administration: Isara ang gripo ng korapsyon. Marapat na istorya lang at wala nang iba pang bagay ang manggaling sa mga media agent ng gobyerno, mga pulitiko, at mga PR sa pribadong sektor. Sa salita mismo ni President-elect Duterte: “Stop it.” Isa pang solusyon ang dapat agad na gampanan ng mga tagapangasiwa ng media: Ayusin ang benepisyo at bigyang proteksyon ang mga mamamahayag.

Gayunpaman, bahagi na rin ng korapsyon sa media ang puilitika. Sa ilang lugar sa Pilipinas, nagaganap na ang institutional capture ng media ng mga pulitiko. Hindi lang block-time segment sa broadcast media ang binibili ng ilang lokal na pamahalaan gamit ang pondong bayan. Hindi lang blocktime kundi buong istasyon ng radyo o diyaryo ang binibili at ngayo’y kontrolado na ng ng ilang lokal na pulitiko at mga angkan. Ang korapsyon sa media ay nababahiran din ng partisan political interest — ito ay batid mismo ni President-elect Duterte.

Sa kabila ng tila ‘di pagakaksundo sa ilang bagay, nagkakaisa ng lubos ang media at si President-elect Duterte sa isang usapin: Ang agarang pagpasa ng Freedom of Information Law. Nagako na siyang maglalabas ng isang FOI executive order sa unang araw ng kanyang pamumuno. Ito’y magsisilbing paniguro na mabilis na gagampanan ng 17th Congress sa tungkulin nitong isabatas ang FOI.

Ang FOI Law ay mahalagang institutional at legal framework sa pagyabong ng tunay at lubos na ugnayan ng transparency at accountability sa pamahalaan. Ito ay proteksyon din sa karapatan ng lahat ng Pilipino na makatanggap ng sapat na impormasyon para sa kanilang lubos paglahok sa mga usaping bayan.

Inaasahan namin ang tagumpay ng Duterte administration sa lahat ng tunguhin nito. Bilang mamahayag at mamamayan, tutuparin namin ang aming tungkulin na magbalita ng tumpak at mahusay. Kasabay nito, itataguyod at ipagtatanggol namin ang free speech, free press, free expression, at right to know na karapatan ng lahat ng Pilipino.

 

ANG PRESIDENTE UG ANG PRENSA

SUBO NGA panaglantugiay ang nahimong tagdanay tali sa media ug sa atong umalabot Presidente Rodrigo Duterte. Tungod niini, daw nakalimtan nga ang duruha managsama’ng may kaakuhan sa pagsilbi ug pagpahibalo sa mga isyu, panghitabo ug palisiya nga kalambigit ang interes sa katawhan.

Ang presidente—isip hepe ehekutibo, tuburan sa direksyon pakigrelasyon sa ubang nasud, tagdumala sa nasudnong panimalay, tigbalantay sa kahusay ug kalinaw, pangulo sa armadong kusog, ug tigpahapsay sa nanagbanging mga palisiya—ang pinakaimportanteng tinubdan sa pagbalita ug palisiya. Subay sa balaod, ang presidente ang mangulo sa nasud ug magpatunhay sa dayag, responsable, ug maayong panggamhanan.

Sa pikas bahin, ang Konstitusyon naglatid sa katungod sa katawhan sa gawasnong pagpamulong, prensa, pagpahayag, ug malinawong katiguman. Gisiguro usab niini ang katungod alang sa due process, patas nga pagtratar sa tanan ilalom sa balaod, kasayuran sa lakaw sa kagamhanan, hustisya, ug pagpakabuhi.

Isip mata sa katawhan, ang media ang tigbalantay ug tig-amoma niining mga katungod. Kini nga tahas angay panghingusgan tungod sa atong kasinatian sa naiaging mga presidente ug ang atong kasaysayan pagkahiagum sa diktadurya. Sa ngalan sa katawhan, ang media angay gawasnon nga manukiduki ug mobatikos sa mga opisyal sa kagamhanan, kung kinahanglan, aron matul-id ang mga kahiwian.

Busa, bisan paman sa kayugot nga gihambin sa atong umalabot presidente ngadto sa media, padayon kitang magsunod sa iyang matag lihok ug ipanulti. Angay nga mas palambuon pa sa media ang pagbalita mahitungod kaniya, sa iyang mga palisiya, ug sa iyang mga laraw, pinasubay sa mga lagda sa kahusto, kaangayan ug tukmang konteksto.

Pursigido kitang buhaton kini bisan pa sa duha ka makasubong mensahe sa umalabot nga Presidente.

Una, ang iyang pahayag nga gipangayo sa mga kurakot nga tigbalita ang kamatayon tungod sa ilang hiwing binuhatan. Dako kining insulto sa dungog sa 172 ka mga tigbalita nga namatay tungod sa ilang trabaho sukad 1986 dihang nahibalik ang demokrasya sa nasud. Tingale, ang ilang kasaypanan mao nga pursigido sila sa pagpanukiduki ug pagbutyag sa krimen ug korapsyon nga mao pod ang gusto masumpo sa atong umalabot nga Presidente. Subo kaayo nga hangtud karon, walay utok sa mga pagpamatay ang nataral sa hukmanan. Lakip sa mga akusado niining mga kaso mga ahente sa estado, mga warlord, ug mga grupo sa mga criminal nga kaabin ang mga anaa sa gahum.

Ikaduha, tinuyo man o dili, ang iyang mga gipanulti kabahin sa media nakakibhang sa kadasig sa mga tigbalita nga moharong aron makakuha’g tubag kabahin sa mga importanteng isyu kay basin pamalikas ang ilang maani.

Dakong kamatuoran ang korapsyon sa media, sama sa realidad sa 16 milyones nga boto nga iyang naangkon sa piniliay. Ang problema nagtunhay sa mga indibidwal ug sa mga ahensya sa media, ug lalum na ang giugatan kay aduna naman gani kaugalingong linggwahe ang mga nagpatunhay niini.

Apan ang korapsyon sa media susama sa merkado, dunay nanginahanglan sa serbisyo ug dunay tigsuplay sa maong serbisyo. Usa ka solusyon pwedeng mahimo sa umalabot nga administrasyon: ang pagpuo sa tinubdan sa korapsyon. Dakong kabahin sa korapsyon ang mga ahente sa gobierno uban sa mga pulitiko ug PRs sa mga korporasyon nga tuyo ang madayegon nga pagbalita bahin kanila o kaha negatibong pagbalita batok sa ilang mga kaatbang. Lain pang solusyon mao ang paghatag maayong panweldo ug benipisyo sa mga tigbalita.

Laing aspeto sa problema mao nga ang media outlets sa daghang lugar sa nasud gipanag-iya sa mga pulitiko, ug daghan sa mga local government units ang nanag-unang kliyente nga nagbuhi sa ilang operasyon pinaagi sa mga blocktime programs gamit ang kwarta sa katawhan. Dinhi, nalambod ang interes sa mga pulitiko sa unta gawasnong proseso sa pagbalita.

Taliwala niining tanan, ang media ug ang atong umalabot nga Presidente nagkasinabot sa usa ka importanteng punto: ang panginahanglan sa balaod alang sa Freedom of Information (FOI). Kung mapakanaug ang executive order alang niini sa pagsugod sa iyang pangatungdanan, naglaum kita nga dili na maglangay ang Kongreso nga ipasa kini isip balaod.

Ang balaod sa FOI maghatag og gambalay sa tiunay nga dayag ug responsableng pang-gobierno, ug magtuman sa katungod sa katawhan nga masayod ug busa manginlabot sa pagpadagan sa kagamhanan.

Kami sa media nanghinaut sa kalampusan sa umalabot nga administrasyon sa iyang mga gidahum nga kab-uton. Isip mga tigbalita ug mga lungsuranon, gisaad namo ang mapadayunong pagpalambo sa propesyon ug sa pagsunod-kanunay sa sugilanon sa katawhan ug sa nasud. Kami hugtanon pod nga mobarog alang sa gawasnong pagpamulong, gawasnong prensa, gawasnnong pagpadayag, ug sa katungod sa katawhan nga masayod.

(This pooled editorial is supported by the Philippine Press Institute, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, Mindanao Cross, Mindanao Gold Star Daily, Sun.Star-Cagayan de Oro, The Journal, The Freeman, Bicol Today, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Kodao Productions, Bulatlat, Philippine Collegian, Eastern Vista, Pahayagang Balikas, Banat News, Northern Dispatch, Panguil Bay Monitor, Mindanao Monitor, Catarman Weekly Tribune, The Standard, Lanao del Norte Today, Panay Today, Pinoy Weekly and Blog Watch.)