AS SEEN ON TV
RIP media the peace maker
More than a bearer of news, media is foremost, a peace maker. A journalist plays an essential key not just in reporting conflict. A journalist’s story is written for the purpose of pushing the public into action, towards a greater goal of resolving conflict, serving justice and promoting peace.
But the brutal slaying of journalists in Maguindanao has changed the view of media’s job as a peace maker. The Maguindanao massacre is proof that media is as vulnerable as all factions of a conflict. The violence was not random. Death was a sure a prospect for the journalists as it was certain for the rest of the Mangudadatu convoy.
In the senselessness of it all, I’d like to believe that there was really a conscious effort to include the media in the perpetrators’ “order of battle”. That backhoe had been digging the mass grave for some time to accommodate a bigger crowd including the press expected to cover the Mangudadatu clan as they were about to file certificates of candidacy.
The Maguindanao media convoy was targeted to silence them, as with any other media killing in the Philippines. To some extent, the perpetrators were trying to teach media a lesson not to mess up with them or their turf. While the Mangudadatus somehow relied on the media to keep them safe, the perpetrators were not really open to negotiate peacefully with the Mangudadatus or with any other third party whether accompanying lawyers or journalists.
The simple plan was just to kill everyone when they got there.
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Ideally journalism is one of the safest professions in the world. Journalists are supposed to enjoy some level of immunity from attacks. Journalists getting killed in action are merely part of collateral damage. Not in the Philippines though, where journalists are not just spectators to any unfolding conflict but hot targets as well.
But it was not always like this. Media used to be regarded as pacifier of an impending act of violence.
Ilonggo journalist and Facebook friend Alex Vidal cites an example in 1997 when media successfully averted what could have been a bloody clash between rival political groups. At the height of the investigations into the Mandu-awak Massacre allegedly perpetrated by a member of an influential political clan in San Dionisio Iloilo then provincial board member Rolex Suplico (who belonged to a rival party) proceeded to the area to investigate the killings. Tension escalated when the suspect’s group and Suplico’s party crossed paths. Armed men started cocking their weapons and the two groups almost clashed if not for the presence of 10 local media practitioners who were on the scene to cover the investigation.
The Mangudadatu clan may have counted on the presence of the media as well for the safety of family members on that fateful day of November 23, 2009. That explains why as many as 30 reporters were invited to cover the filing of Esmael Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy.
But as it turns out, the media has done little to protect them. In fact, the media was just as hot a target as the Mangudadatus and their lawyers who were unceremoniously exterminated.
In RP—- media the peace maker—is dead.
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While traditional journalists took a blow with the recent developments in Maguindanao, citizen journalists have been shining in what they do best: Report on what traditional media could not.
With the Mangudadatu media convoy dead, the nation depended on citizen journalists to tell about the unspeakable violence that transpired.
And they didn’t fail us.
ABS CBN News received the first pictures of the gruesome killings from boto patrollers who were on the scene. They also sent text messages describing what they saw. All this information is now helping put the puzzle pieces together with accounts of other witnesses.
This has been another success story for Boto Mo Ipatrol Mo Ako Ang Simula. The Maguindanao massacre which was a secret its victims were to bring to their graves was exposed by the Boto Patrollers’ zealous enough to set aside their safety to bring out the truth.
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ABS CBN has earmarked one million pesos for the families of the journalists killed in Maguindanao. Donations are also accepted. For more information please email: Tina_Palma@abs-cbn.com.
