What press freedom?

Photo: Neo-Angono Artists Collective

It appears that the National Press Club is an extension propaganda arm of Malacanang. The subdued press freedom mural is total revision of historical events. Philipine bogus President Gloria Arroyo is best remembered as the suppressor of civil liberties in the Philippines.


A mural on the history of press freedom in the Philippines commissioned by one of the country's oldest press organizations is creating controversy after several portions of the final artwork was altered without the artists' consent before its unveiling last week.

The Neo-Angono Artists Collective said the National Press Club made "slipshod alterations" on the 8x32 foot oil on canvas artwork several days before it was unveiled before President Arroyo on October 26. ABS-CBN News
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US State Dep’t says RP press freedom ‘deteriorating’

50th journalist killed under Arroyo

The suppression of press freedom in the Philippines has something to do with the legitimacy of Gloria Arroyo presidency. She conspired with the military in the ouster of popularly elected President Joseph Estrada in 2001 and cheated the 2004 presidential election. Gloria Arroyo and her cohorts are suppressing the media to hide their crimes committed against the Filipino people. Political dissenters are physically eliminated, abducted, harassed and intimidated. The surge of political killings came after she declared all-out war against the NDF-CPP-NPA. Rampant violation of civil liberties and human rights abuses are committed by security forces. Gloria Arroyo harassed the media thru his corrupt husband Miguel Arroyo who filed multiple libel cases against 43 reporters, columnists, editors and publishers of various print media. About fifty journalists from print and broadcast media had been killed since 2001 power grab. Criminal justice system is a total failure under Philippine bogus President Gloria Arroyo. Extra-judicial and political killing is being tolerated to silence dissenters.

US State Dep’t says RP press freedom ‘deteriorating’

Daily Tribune 05/03/2007

The United States said on Wednesday that press freedom in the Philippines is “dete-riorating.”

In a statement, the US State Department lumped the Philip-pines along with Afghanistan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt and Lebanon on its list of countries with “deteriorating conditions for press freedom.”

“We are... concerned about increasing limitations on press freedoms around the world. In many countries, governments are tightening libel laws, media ownership is increasingly controlled by governments and pro-government forces, the number of independent press outlets is declining, restrictions on Internet search engines and the rights of citizens to express themselves freely over the Internet are multiplying, and those who try to independently seek, receive or disseminate information and ideas are being persecuted,” the State Department said.

Meanwhile, the US has identified 13 countries with “continually poor records on press freedom.”

These are Burma, Eritrea, North Korea, Equatorial Guinea, Cuba, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Syria, Belarus, China and Zimbabwe.

Earlier, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF-Reporters without Borders) tagged the Philippines as a worst place for media with continued killings of From page 1

journalists and increased legal harassment by President Arroyo’s husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.

Mr. Arroyo also yesterday was advised by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. to refrain from worrying much about funding the administration party Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi) and from going after journalists whom he feels have wronged him.

Pimentel, during an interview at the Fernandina Forum in Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan (Metro Manila), said he agrees with the advice of the doctors of the First Gentleman for him to shun stressful activities, adding politics carries so much stress in it so he should avoid engaging in it.

Mr. Arroyo last Monday was released from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City more than three weeks after undergoing critical surgery there to correct an aortic aneurysm.

“I agree with that advice and he should not fund the activities of Kampi because they are all looking up to him for funding. One of the rests he should take is rest from funding Kampi,” Pimentel said.

According to him, the President’s husband should start forgiving those whom he felt have done him wrong since his “sins” were forgiven by the Creator as evidenced by having been given him a new lease in life.

“He should be forgiving enough. I think the Lord was kind enough to forgive him his trespasses by ensuring his operation was successful. If he felt the journalists concerned trespassed on his name, then maybe he should not take that against them anymore and just forgive them. Anyway, he is a public official and to my mind there is no libel there,” Pimentel said.

Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, Mr. Arroyo’s lead physician, had said considering the difficulty of the operation and the First Gentleman’s age (60), he has remarkably recovered.

Cervantes added the patient personally requested that he walk out of the hospital instead of being seated on a wheelchair.

A van took him to Malacañang.

Mr. Arroyo was handed by doctors a “can and cannot do” list to achieve the three-month target for full recovery, including controlling his blood pressure and modifying his lifestyle.

Cervantes said unless necessary the patient should avoid reading newspapers because his blood pressure could shoot up.

She added he must also strictly follow his diet and take his medicines regularly.

The doctor said the First Gentleman would have to learn how to “manage stress.”

Cervantes added Mr. Arroyo should go easy on sugar but “we are still giving him some leeway in terms of the diet, as long as it’s not too fatty, not too oily, that’s about it, but he can eat a lot of protein because we want the wounds to heal fast.”

The President’s husband has to go back to the hospital every other day for cardiac rehabilitation.

In RSF’s 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, the Philippines placed 142nd in a survey composed of 168 nations.

It has been in the RSF’s worst-ranked countries list for three consecutive years.

At the same time, the group also criticized Mrs. Arroyo for curtailing freedom of the press.

“President Gloria Arroyo, weakened by a series of scandals, tried to stop the press from doing its job of safeguarding democracy,” the RSF said.

It also cited the Philippines as the most dangerous country for journalists after Iraq.

RSF noted journalists are murdered, as was Marlene Esperat in March, for investigating corruption and criticism of local authorities.

It added that politicians and officials exposed by the local press use other less radical methods to silence their critics.

On the other hand, Washington reaffirmed its commitment to upholding press freedom worldwide.

It noted that freedom of the press is a key component of democracy.

“The free exchange of ideas fosters accountable government and allows the viewpoints of many, including the marginalized in a society, to be heard. The United States works bilaterally and multilaterally in many ways to support press freedom worldwide,” Washington said. Michaela P. del Callar and Jojo Arazas

Inciting to sedition raps against Editor and two columnists

What the heck is inciting to sedition? Free press is provided and guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. The Department of Justice under over staying interim Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and its bias state prosecutors want to intimidate journalists and critical media for exposing corruption, abuse of power of bogus President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her inept government. The Arroyo government is corrupt since it came to power thru coup d'etat in 2001. Political killings targeting journalists, lawyers, religious workers, activists, militant farmers and workers under GMA regime is condemned by foreign governments and international bodies for not doing enough to stop it. It appears that political killings targeting the legal Left is being tolerated if not a national policy of the Arroyo government. Gloria Arroyo and her military clique want to end the 37 years old insurgency by 2010.

State prosecutors cite Olivares’ columns, editorials as proof

Inciting to sedition raps filed vs Tribune chief

By Benjamin B. Pulta

02/15/2007

In the day of hearts, the Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief, Ninez Cacho-Olivares, was slapped by the state prosecutors with the criminal charge of “inciting to sedition,” along with two columnists of the paper.

The charges were reported to have been submitted to the Manila Trial Court with a recommended bail of P12,000.

An arrest warrant is being expected by Olivares, who was not even given a copy of the resolution of the case, even as this was distributed to Justice beat reporters.

In a 29-page resolution, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño approved separate criminal informations against Olivares, Ike Señeres and Herman Tiu Laurel and recommended bail at P12,000 each.

Cited in the charge sheet were seven of the paper’s editorials and five Olivares’ Frontline columns. The resolution dated Dec. 21, 2006 was claimed to have been mailed only last Feb. 5.

The first of the editorials cited by prosecutors, entitled Candles for Truth was published on September 2005 and described the Arroyo

administration as having “turned into a government to buy the people.”

“She (Arroyo) cannot exercise the rule of government except through the buying of support. That was the way she swayed Congress to her side. Support was bought, directly or indirectly, through early release of pork barrels or commitments for such and that should not be denied by those who accepted the virtual bribes.”

The complaint was filed by the national police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)’s National Capital Region chief Asher Dolina.

It is the same unit that led a raid without a warrant on the Tribune’s office in downtown Manila shortly after Mrs. Arroyo’s declaration of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017.

The proclamation was later declared invalid by the Supreme Court insofar as it authorizes warrantless arrests and seizures.

Two police intelligence officials, P/Supt. Generoso Cerbo, Jr. and P/Insp. Felix Cervita presently occupying the post of Chief of the Intelligence Research Center and Section Chief of the Office of the Director for Intelligence were named as witnesses.

“”We cannot but find that strong and unassailable evidence exists to render it our irremissible duty to determine a sufficiently well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and that respondents are probably guilty thereof and should be held for trial,” a portion of the charge sheet said.

“In fine, her (Olivares’) articles and editorials...showed grossly abusive statements against the institutions of the Philippine government as well as to its present officials and called for the booting out of this government as the only solution,” the prosecutors claimed.

Particular mention was made by the prosecutors of a column last Dec.11, 2005 where Olivares stated “that the military willfully engages in illegal activities and follows illegal orders from the commander-in-chief.”

Asked for her reaction, Olivares, who appeared unfazed by the latest criminal lawsuit filed against her, said, “What else is new? Malacañang and its morons in the Justice Department are once again trying to scare me off and silence me. If they can’t do it with a bullet, they will do it through the courts, many of which have been prostituted anyway, and will hold a trial on this, even when there is clearly no case at all,” Olivares said.

She pointed out that the Panganiban Supreme Court had already ruled that the raid conducted by the police-military team, where various documents in the Tribune offices, including the past issues, from where this team obtained its “evidence” against her, was illegal.

“Just on that basis, it follows that the “proof” which is no proof at all, (the so-called police witnesses) was illegally obtained and therefore, is inadmissible in court,” the Tribune publisher said.

She also pointed out that the articles being referred to as proof of her crime of inciting to sedition are at least over a year old.

“If my columns and editorials, as they claim, incited poeple to sedition, who did I incite to bring down the Arroyo government? Tribune readers? It’s been over a year since I wrote those articles and close to a year since the illegal raid on the Tribune. Why charge me now?” Olivares said.

“The answer is: It’s election time again, which translates to Gloria and her stooges attempting again to silence me through intimidation, and trying to frighten me into going soft on my criticisms against her and her government, which regime already has a notorious reputation for suppressing press freedom,” she stressed.

She added that in the case of the inciting to sedition charge against her, for writing that “the military willfully engages in illegal activities and follows illegal orders from the commander-in-chief,” she noted: “Well, isn’t that the truth that Gloria and her military have been trying to cover-up all this time? There is proof that she had given orders, through her Comelec operator, Virgilio Garcillano, for the military and police generals to engage in massive electoral fraud in 2004 to ensure her victory at the polls. That’s an illegal order, and the military did follow those orders. The Hello Garci tapes are proof of that!

“As for proof of the truth to the article that stated she has been buying off congressmen with money, state prosecutors should check on statements in video of several congressmen admitting that they had been offered bribes by Gloria.,” she said, adding “that’s what all the charges against Gloria are, and these are the charges leveled at her by the opposition and some 70 percent of the Filipino people on her lying, stealing and cheating ways. So are they also to be charged with inciting to sedition?”

On the accusation by the police witnesses that the Tribune chief had written “grossly abusive statements against the institutions of the Philippine government as well as to its present officials and called for the booting out of this government as the only solution,” she said: “Well, isn’t that the only solution? Besides,”she stressed, “Gloria and her prostitutes in the military and the police booted out a legitimate President, Joseph Estrada, through a coup d’etat. If their commander in chief today claimed it was not illegal to do so, why should it be illegal for her to be booted out, whether through the ballot or the so-called military backed people power?”

Olivares said there was absolutely nothing “grossly abusive” about her articles, but that in any case, it is not for the “morons in the police force and the state prosecutors” to judge what is abusive or not.

Olivares said she is, as usual a target for persecution, brought about by a “vindictive Gloria Arroyo, to “harass her,” as the many libel suits lodged by her spouse, First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, which has the blessings of the President, failed to intimidate Olivares.

Asian Press Freedom Regressed In 2006

The Philippines and Afghanistan were the most dangerous places for journalists in Asia in 2006. The Philippine National Police is clueless in most of the killings.

United Nations envoy on extra-judicial killings arrives in RP

Miguel Arroyo Is The New Enemy of Press Freedom

The Arroyo government is suppressing the media to hide her cheating, lying, stealing and political killings at the same time for her political survival. Press freedom is meaningless if media men are intimidated, harass, murdered, assassinated and fear the safety of family members. Media expose' of graft and corruption in the bureaucracy is helping the government to track down erring officials and employees. Local warlords and political kingpins sow climate of fear among critical radio broadcasters and print journalists in the provinces.

Reporters Without Borders

Philippines - Annual report 2007

Despite new arrests of murderers, the authorities failed to stem the wave of violence against journalists. At least six were killed in 2006. And the press also found itself facing a new enemy: José Miguel Arroyo, the husband of President Gloria Arroyo, who took out a raft of defamation suits.

While her husband was lodging “defamation” complaints against more than 40 journalists, President Arroyo said, on 18 November 2006, that her government was “respectful of press freedom, an institution of Philippines democracy”. On the same day, journalist Ellen Tordesillas, a stern critic of the government received an email warning her: “Your days are numbered”. Murders, assaults, arrests, abusive law suits and censorship were the hallmark of 2006 in this country.

The avalanche of suits brought by the “first gentleman” in a country where defamation is still a criminal offence, put the liberty of scores of journalists in danger. In October, eight members of the management on privately-owned daily Malaya narrowly escaped arrest after publishing an editorial accusing the head of state’s husband of “corruption”. In a total of 43 suits brought against journalists, José Miguel Arroyo claimed a total of 70 million pesos (almost 1.1 million euros) in damages. In December, journalists’ organisations counter-attacked by bringing a complaint in their turn against the president’s husband for violating press freedom and demanding one peso in damages for each Philippine citizen.

Faced with a rebellion within the army, the president declared a state of emergency, on 24 February 2006. Several generals were locked up and the crackdown extended to the opposition press. Police searched The Daily Tribune on the same day and seized documents.

At least six journalists were murdered while doing their job in 2006, the majority of them were presenters on one of the country’s very numerous FM radio stations. In the Philippines, local stations sell airtime to private individual known as “block timers” who can then put out their own commercial or political programmes. Rolly Canete, gunned down in January 2006 in the city of Pagadian, Zamboanga del sur province in the south, presented programmes on local radio on behalf of a deputy and his wife, the province’s governor. Hit-men sometimes show extreme determination. Fernando Batul, commentator on dyPR radio was shot dead on his way to work on Palawan Island, south-west of Manila in May. A few weeks earlier he narrowly escaped a murder bid in which two grenades were thrown at his home. His assailants had left a letter advising him to “hold your tongue”. A police officer was arrested a few days later and the instigators were reportedly local politicians. The local press can also be targeted in the same way. Orlando Mendoza, aged 58, editor of the newspaper Tarlac Patro in Luzon province was murdered in April after receiving threats from a paramilitary group.

Gloria Arroyo’s administration has been widely criticised for its inability to act against the murderers of opposition and human rights activists. Some politically committed journalists have been victims of this political violence as in the case of Mazel and George Vigo who were killed on Mindanao Island in June. Community media defending the rights of peasant farmers were also targeted. In July, armed men torched a building housing Radyo Cagayano, one of whose presenters, a peasant union leader, was killed a few months later. The military is suspected of being behind these attacks.

Police and the courts have chalked up some successes in their struggle against the murderers of journalists. Four men found guilty of the murder of Marlene Esperat, a journalist specialising in corruption, who was killed in March 2005, were sentenced to life imprisonment. But collusion inside the justice system allowed those who ordered the killing to escape court for the time being. On the other hand, a former police officer suspected of being the “brains” behind the June 2004 murder of journalist Ely Binoya, was acquitted in March. The regional court in General Santos, southern Philippines, said that there was insufficient evidence against him.

There were at least 25 murder attempts and assaults and ten arrests during 2006. Censorship also bit deeper, often because of local politicians seeking to silence opposition media. In March the mayor of Valencia City, south of Manila, ordered the closure of radio dxVR, some of whose presenters were close to their political opponents. In the capital, a programme of reports on ABS-CBN was banned by the regulatory authority over the controversial subject of drug use in the country.

Finally the authorities in Aurora province, north-east of Manila, failed to mount any search for radio presenter Joey Estriber, a specialist on environmental issues, who was kidnapped in March. He had spoken out against illegal logging in the region.

Related links:
Press Freedom: A new interpretation?
Bid to muzzle media revives memories of past dictatorship
Crusading editor gives Arroyo sleepless nights