Accents
Journalists slaughtered in the line of duty
As an alumna of UP Diliman and in solidarity with my fellow alumni in their swift, intensely compelling, passionately fierce protest launched against the massacre of journalists in Maguindanao, I yield my space to their Statement that I received via email. Barely two days after the most heinous snuffing out of the lives of media people, UP acted with immediacy, Nov. 25, putting to shame government’s pathetic action which only evinced strength five days after the Nov. 23 massacre.
The University of the Philippines ignited the demand for swift action from the Arroyo administration. No surprise that the first salvo of protests came from the denizens of the “University of the People”—a formidable hub of idealists, activists, radicals, revolutionaries, street parliamentarians—restless, impatient, on edge over the crushing incidents in the country. Human rights abuses. Graft and corruption. Betrayal of public trust. Electoral fraud and cover-up.
Extrajudicial killings. Enforced disappearances. Etc. etc. ad nauseam, now topped by the Maguindanao massacre that may yet cause Bayan Ko to keel over, heaven forbid.
The university has produced great spirits that won’t take injustice lying down. Call them activists, radicals, revolutionaries. “In many [relevant to quote what I wrote in a column some years ago], there beats a humane and compassionate heart that will wrestle and stand firm against the onslaught of human rights violations and the iniquity of an exploitative, oppressive society.
Hearts steadfast to fight what seems to be an unbeatable foe, resolute to right what seems to be an unrightable wrong in order to reach the seemingly unreachable stars, to paraphrase the song.”
A dash of poetry to spirits who can soar to the heavens and yet have feet firmly planted on the ground.
The events that followed are now history, but the ever vigilant protesters are closely watching if commensurate justice will be meted out on the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre. OR
ELSE? That is the big question, the dire consequences of which will fall on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration.
I salute my fellow alumni for their Statement. Read on:
Statement on the Maguindanao Massacre by Prof. Rolando Tolentino, Ph.D, Dean, U.P. College of Mass Communication (UP-CMC); former UP-CMC Dean Prof. Luis Teodoro; 16 regular faculty members and 7 lecturers from the Departments of Journalism, Broadcast Communication, Communication Research and the U.P. Film Institute; nine student organizations of the UP-CMC Student Organizations: UP Journalism Club, Union of Journalists of the Philippines, CMC Student Council, Samaskom (Samahan ng mga Mag-aaral ng Komunikasyon), Cineastes’ Studio, UP Circle of Research Enthuasiasts, UP Broadcasters’ Guild, Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP College of Mass Communication, UP Sining at Lipunan; and by UP-CMC REPS and administrative staff. (The statement is being routed college-wide for signature of other members of the college faculty, staff and students).
The mutilated bodies of journalists Ian Subang (Dadiangas Times), Leah Dalmacio (Forum), Gina dela Cruz (Today), Marites Cablitas (Today), Joy Duhay (UNTV), Henry Araneta (DZRH), Andy Teodoro (Mindanao Inquirer), Neneng Montaño (formerly of RGMA), Bong Reblando, (Manila Bulletin), Victor Nuñez (UNTV), Macmac Ariola (UNTV), Jimmy Cabillo (UNTV), Bart Maravilla (Bombo Radyo, Koronadal) and lawyers Cynthia Oquendo and Connie Brizuela were recovered hours after they had set out to cover the filing of certificates of candidacy by the wife of a local official in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao yesterday.
The journalists and media practitioners were part of a convoy of some 44 unarmed civilians, most of them women, who were waylaid on their way to the Comelec office. According to reports, the skulls of some of the victims [a total of 57, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dec. 12, 2009] were shattered with bullets, their faces crushed beyond recognition, the women raped, and some of the other victims beheaded.
This is the largest number of journalists [32 as stated in a forwarded email of Bertini “Toto” Causing, board member as well as legal consultant of the National Press Club, Dec. 11, 2009] killed in one single incident anywhere in the world and comes amid local and international concern over deadly attacks on media people.
An earlier e-mail to Mr Brinkley-Rogers by Mr. Causing, which first appeared at a Pinoy discussion group online:
While the killings were the result of the long-running feud between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus, both maintain private armies that the government has failed to disband. The President relies on her allies to deliver votes to Malacañang, some of whom maintain heavily armed goons beyond the pale of law. Covering elections has become a dangerous trade for journalists in this country. The massacre is in short the direct consequence of the state of lawlessness in Maguindanao abetted by the Arroyo regime, in the same manner that it abets and in some cases even encourages, extra judicial killings— and in the case of journalists, encourages further killings through its indifference.
While the massacre was being perpetrated, the President’s chief political adviser was in fact shaking hands with the Ampatuans in Malacañang yesterday, even as the PNP chief for Maguindanao refused to respond when the victims were calling him up by cellphone.
In an obvious attempt at benefitting from the brutal killings—and in tacit admission that the military and police cannot do anything to prevent further violence without special powers— the presidential adviser on the peace process, Jesus Dureza, could only propose the declaration of a state of emergency in Maguindanao.
The country has been down that road before, and we know where it leads: to further violence as the police and military mask their partisanship for the various groups fighting for power in the province; as well as to further abuse as they impose the will of their patrons on the citizenry.
The Department of Journalism of the U.P. College of Mass Communication holds the Arroyo government accountable for the continuing state of lawless violence in Maguindanao and other parts of the country.
We demand that the President be made to account for the murders and mayhem perpetrated by her allies and for her continued coddling of warlords and private armies. We demand the immediate arrest of the thugs armed with unlicensed firearms as well as their bosses, and the immediate arrest and detention of the perpetrators of the crime and its masterminds regardless of political party.
Mrs. Arroyo should otherwise relinquish control of the AFP units in the area to the Comelec. Her failure to act decisively would not only demonstrate that she has no control over those areas where her allies rule. It would also show that she has a conflict of interest—between her public duty to protect the life of every Filipino on the one hand, and on the other, her interest in coddling the warlords who have delivered votes for her administration in the past regardless of their cost in lives, and on whom she will once again depend in May, 2010.
