(Statement on Pres. Aquino’s speech at the 16th National Convention of the
Philippine Press Institute)
"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the
people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to
me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or
newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the
latter.” – Thomas Jefferson
And again he whines.
In his speech at the Philippine Press Institute’s 16th
National Press Forum, President Benigno Aquino III again grabbed the
opportunity to berate the one sector he seems to think is to blame for all the
woes our country is facing – his very hosts, the Philippine Press.
We do give credit to Mr. Aquino for the courage of telling
us to our faces what he thinks of us.
We do, however, take exception to his portraiture of the
Philippine media as the anecdotal crabs bent on pulling him and, to his mind,
the country down.
Never mind the pettiness of the actual examples he raises,
never mind even that the unfortunate focus on his from regular to zero to sort
of regular love life should be properly blamed on his penchant for suddenly
blurting out details of what otherwise he insists are private matters.
He accuses the media of trumpeting travel advisories and
terror warnings that he says drive away tourists and the millions of dollars they
otherwise would pour into our economy.
Dare we ask, Mr. President, who called a hasty press
conference at the Palace, complete with an array of government top brass, to
announce what turned out to be a non-existent terror threat on the eve of the
Black Nazarene procession in January?
Or perhaps Mr. Aquino would like to tell off those pesky
foreign embassies that regularly send out the advisories he so hates as well as
those in his security services with a penchant for leaks?
But what is truly worrisome about Mr. Aquino’s wholesale
depiction of the Philippine media is that it is of a mindset akin to that which
shut down a vibrant press in September 1972 and replaced it with mouthpieces
dedicated to extolling “the true, the good, the beautiful” life under a brutal
dictatorship.
Sure, we sometimes get it wrong. We never said we were
infallible.
But Mr. Aquino’s whining about getting a bad press merely
shows up how totally bereft he is of a sense of history.
And since he appears to be more enamored with how the
foreign press regards us, notwithstanding that, however well-intentioned they
may be, they are outside observers looking in and only on one area, he would do
well to heed the admonition of Thomas Jefferson.
Mr. Aquino would have us trumpet his administration’s
accomplishments, like improved agricultural production and an upbeat economy.
How, though, to highlight these over the fact that all too many of our
countrymen continue to wallow in poverty and hunger? Should this not rightly
lead us to ask why, despite these seemingly glowing achievements, they remain
in such dire straits?
Yes, Mr. Aquino, the press you loathe does report on the
successes of the police. But how, pray, can this take precedence over the fact
that far too many of our countrymen – and that includes journalists – continue
to fall prey to crime and, worse, the violations of their human rights at the
hands of those supposedly sworn to protect them?
And yes, Mr. Aquino, we do report on the nobility of our
public servants who, in their dedication, go beyond the call of duty.
But should you really expect people to fall all over
themselves to praise you for doing your sworn duty? Does this mean then that
doing what you promised to is such a rarity that we need to highlight it each
time it happens?
Or perhaps you would have us do as you do and look the other
way when Ronald Llamas next purchases pirated DVDs, or Jesse Robredo and Edwin
Lacierda knowingly defy a lawful court order to give men wanted for murder a
headstart to evade justice, or as our colleagues and activists and
environmentalists and lawyers and judges and religious and farmers and
fishermen and indigenous people continue to be murdered and disappeared and
tortured and threatened and harassed?
No, Mr. Aquino, we care about our country and people as much
as, perhaps even more than, you do.
This is why we will not be a party to a whitewash, to your
Potemkin. This is why we will continue to inform the people as best we can of
the true state of our common lives, to question why we continue to suffer
despite your promises of justice and good governance, and to hound you for
failing to fulfill what you swore our people you would.
Reference:
Rowena Carranza Paraan
Secretary General
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