The droning question

We are reprinting this article of Sarah Hartley originally titled “Drones in Media Bring New Perspectives, Ethical Issues,” originally published in Contributoria and reprinted with permission on the website of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

DRONES. Even the word has something of menace about it. A mechanical wasp, hovering with some sort of malevolent intent, operated by remote distant operators with unknown levels of compassion. Or at least that’s how TV shows such asHomeland portray the armed type of drone, a weapon of war that has little in common with these new tools of journalism aside from a shared abbreviated and catchy name. The regular use of the term to describe flying cameras probably owes more to the macho eagerness of the journalism world to adopt a military-like word than it is an accurate description of the technology.

Click on the photo to continue reading the article on the GIJN website.

Photo from GIJN website

Photo from GIJN website

VIDEO: The ‘promised land’

ALMA Ravina is a second generation coconut farmer in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon province. Since last year, she already owns the land their family have been toiling for years—well, at least that’s what it says on paper.

On May 15, 2015, the collective might of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) plus the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Philippine Army failed to install Luzara and other agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Hacienda Matias in San Francisco, Bondoc Peninsula.

Hacienda Matias — whose former owners are Michael Gil Matias and Cenen F. Matias Jr — is a coconut plantation that spans an area of 1,715.983 hectares.

Of the 283 ARBs, 69 members of KMBP need to be installed, or to be physically placed on their farm lot. This is because they were driven out of their farm lots by the hired armed goons of the Matiases. Some of them live near the shore of Sibuyan Sea, while the others managed to build makeshift shelters on the mountain slopes in the margins of Hacienda Matias.

For some curious reason, both the police and army could not hurdle the main gate of Hacienda Matias and effectively install the ARBs that day.

Curious, too, that a memo order, dated May 20, 2015, of Police Director Ricardo Cornejo Marquez of the PNP Directorate for Operations to “establish PNP detachment within the hacienda, escort the DAR personnel and ARBs/farmers in installing the latter to their awarded lands, conduct regular patrol within the hacienda, and implement other appropriate interventions to ensure/maintain peace and order in the area” could not be implemented by the Quezon PNP Regional Command.

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, had texted the request for a PNP detachment inside the hacienda because “installation is futile if the area is not guarded by PNP once installed by DAR.”

Ravina is among the 283 CLOA holders in Hacienda Matias.

This video short tells their story.

Brazilian reporter beheaded

We are reposting this article originally titled “Brazilian investigative journalist beheaded” and first published on the website of the International Press Institute on May 21, 2015.

By Elena Pramesberger, IPI Contributor

VIENNA, May 21, 2015 – A Brazilian reporter who had been investigating a child prostitution ring was found decapitated in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais on Monday.

The body of Evany José Metzker, 67, was discovered in the town of Padre Paraíso five days after he went missing. According to Opens external link in new windownews reports, the journalist’s body showed signs of physical violence and was found with his hands tied, while his head was discovered in a ditch 100 meters away. Several personal belongings, including various documents, his wallet and wedding ring were found nearby.

State police officials have reportedly established Metzker’s work as a possible motive for his murder, but have not ruled out other motives. Metzker was a well-known investigative journalist in the area and ran the blog “Coruja do Vale” (engl.: Owl of the Valley), which regularly reported cases of corruption and was often viewed as critical of the government and police. According to the local newspaper Estado de Minas, Metzker had recently been investigating a child prostitution gang that was allegedly active in Catuji, Minas Gerais.

Click on the photo to continue reading the article on the IPI website.

Beheaded reporter

FOI limbo déjà vu

By Cong B. Corrales

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION advocates expressed concern over the delay of the submission of the committee report of the House Committee on Public Information to the House Secretary General, Wednesday (May 20) as this will “impact the already narrow window for the passage of the bill.”

“Our support and solidarity to the FOI authors in their desire to advance the bill to plenary. However, we express our concern over the delay of the submission because every delay impacts the already narrow window for passing the bill,” Right to Know, Right Now! (R2KRN) Coalition convenor Nepomuceno Malaluan told the PCIJ, Wednesday.

"If FOI is to advance within the timetable, it cannot be just one of the numerous priorities but must take the highest level of import," Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition convenor Nepomuceno Malaluan. Photo taken during the Light Up for FOI candle-lighting rally in front of the House of Representatives in September, 2013 | PCIJ File Photo

“If FOI is to advance within the timetable, it cannot be just one of the numerous priorities but must take the highest level of import,” Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition convenor Nepomuceno Malaluan. Photo taken during the Light Up for FOI candle-lighting rally in front of the House of Representatives in September, 2013 | PCIJ File Photo

The PCIJ is a member organization of the R2KRN! Coalition.

While waiting for the supposed schedule of the submission of the committee report, Malaluan received word from the office of Rep. Jorge Almonte that they have decided to reset the submission of the committee report.

“It was originally scheduled to be submitted at 3:30pm, Wednesday (May 20), (but) there was anticipation that the BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) final vote would not be finished by that time and some of the FOI authors and the (House committee on public information) Chair (Jorge Almonte) are members of the Ad Hoc Committee of the BBL,” Malaluan said.

r2klogo

Had the FOI committee report been submitted as scheduled, Malaluan said, the campaign for the passage of the bill would have shifted from the committee level to the plenary process.

The FOI committee report consolidates 24 FOI bills including the one filed through Indirect Initiatives by the R2KRN coalition. The Committee on Public Information approved the consolidated version on November 24, 2014 and the Committee on Appropriations approved its appropriation provision on March 4, this year.

From the time the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the bill was constituted on November 26, 2013, it has taken 90 meetings before the proposed consolidated bill was presented to the Committee on Public Information for deliberation.

“The postponement of the filing to give way to BBL, shows the importance of a measure being given the highest priority by the administration and by the leaders of Congress,” said Malaluan.

“If FOI is to advance within the timetable, it cannot be just one of the numerous priorities but must take the highest level of import.”

The FOI Bill has been in the legislative wringer for the past 28 years—since it was first filed in the 8th Congress.

May Day 2015

Text and photos by Cong B. Corrales

A SEA OF RED banners, pennants, shirts, and streamers engulfed Liwasang Bonifacio yet again on May Day 2015.

The site of countless protest rallies against dictatorship, corruption, and violations of people’s rights, Liwasang Bonifacio on Saturday played host to workers from the militant unions of the Kilusang Mayo Uno.

By all indications unflinching, unbending in demeanor and resolve they called out the Aquino government for its failure to increase wages, provide jobs, end the country’s labor export policy, and curb “corporate greed” and corruption. - PCIJ, May 2015