STATEMENT
In a recent pronouncement broadcast and
published by a local media outfit, the Police Regional Police Regional Office
Cordillera claimed it identified more than 300 "left-leaning"
individuals in the Cordillera Region.
Included in the list according to the police, are government officials and members of the media. The said number according to the police are supporters of the leftist group.
Last month, the media discovered that the Cordillera Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC) passed a resolution on employing "tokhang" approach against "left-leaning" personalities including people in government and media.
The resolution signed by the Cordillera Regional Executives including other representatives of different government agencies and bodies sought the use of "tokhang" which was used during the bloody war on drugs that led to thousands of deaths, left countless orphans and widows as many of them were said to have resorted to "nanlaban" against the authorities.
The Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC) finds the resolution an affront to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.
We find the resolution an abridgment of the freedom of the press since media had been categorically tagged and identified in the enumeration of the sectors to be subjected to “tokhang.”
The resolution has branded members of media left leaning or simply communists without the benefit of due process of law.
And now, PROCor announced there is already a plan to implement tokhang to the more than 300 individuals this March and there is even a target completion by the end of the said month. We find it alarming to us members of the media.
The conduct of tokhang on offices and residences of media people identified as left leaning to tell them not to support the CPP-NPA-NDF is invasive to the privacy and rights of media men if not an outright insult and denigration of their person and function as members of the Fourth Estate.
The measure harps on the way Operation Tokhang was enforced for drug law violators but the comparison smacks of ignorance and incompetence in understanding the role of the press. Drug use or drug dealing are oceans apart from the profession of journalism whose simple task is to report facts and inform the public.
The resolution is a nightmare to media and the press. The constitutional provision is clear: “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.”
The resolution may not be a law itself but the attributes thereof partake of an action, or tokhang, to be enforced that curtails the very nature why the freedom of the press is one of the most revered freedom in a truly democratic society.
The identification of media as one of the sectors to be included in the tokhang is a reprehensible assault on the nature of a free press. Imagine a law enforcer knocking ion the door of the house of a journalist and be told that he or she is a known communist sympathizer or supporter and the he or she must refrain from writing articles about the enemy. That simply sucks.
If the government believes that an article is damaging to the authorities or that it promotes insurgency or communism, there are legitimate means to seek redress against it.
But not to suppress the exercise of the right to write or broadcast by knocking on doors to tell the reporter to avoid being a sympathizer for that is tantamount to the authorities being both a judge and an executioner bereft of the decency that must be accorded journalists in view of the nature of their profession.
According to Cordillera Police, charges will be filed against the individuals who will not adhere to their pleas. From that pronouncement, are they already judged as "left-leaning" individuals or "simply leftists? Again, from whose or what parameters will the definition of “left-leaning” and “leftist” will come from? If they do not stop being "such", what charges are they going to face? What are the legal basis?
We challenge the PROCor to show its list of the more than 300 "left-leaning" individuals including people from the government moreover members of the media for us not to be left in the dark and be surprised one day that people will be knocking on our doors. We also urge the police to give or provide legal bases why they addressed the individuals as such.
Included in the list according to the police, are government officials and members of the media. The said number according to the police are supporters of the leftist group.
Last month, the media discovered that the Cordillera Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC) passed a resolution on employing "tokhang" approach against "left-leaning" personalities including people in government and media.
The resolution signed by the Cordillera Regional Executives including other representatives of different government agencies and bodies sought the use of "tokhang" which was used during the bloody war on drugs that led to thousands of deaths, left countless orphans and widows as many of them were said to have resorted to "nanlaban" against the authorities.
The Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC) finds the resolution an affront to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.
We find the resolution an abridgment of the freedom of the press since media had been categorically tagged and identified in the enumeration of the sectors to be subjected to “tokhang.”
The resolution has branded members of media left leaning or simply communists without the benefit of due process of law.
And now, PROCor announced there is already a plan to implement tokhang to the more than 300 individuals this March and there is even a target completion by the end of the said month. We find it alarming to us members of the media.
The conduct of tokhang on offices and residences of media people identified as left leaning to tell them not to support the CPP-NPA-NDF is invasive to the privacy and rights of media men if not an outright insult and denigration of their person and function as members of the Fourth Estate.
The measure harps on the way Operation Tokhang was enforced for drug law violators but the comparison smacks of ignorance and incompetence in understanding the role of the press. Drug use or drug dealing are oceans apart from the profession of journalism whose simple task is to report facts and inform the public.
The resolution is a nightmare to media and the press. The constitutional provision is clear: “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.”
The resolution may not be a law itself but the attributes thereof partake of an action, or tokhang, to be enforced that curtails the very nature why the freedom of the press is one of the most revered freedom in a truly democratic society.
The identification of media as one of the sectors to be included in the tokhang is a reprehensible assault on the nature of a free press. Imagine a law enforcer knocking ion the door of the house of a journalist and be told that he or she is a known communist sympathizer or supporter and the he or she must refrain from writing articles about the enemy. That simply sucks.
If the government believes that an article is damaging to the authorities or that it promotes insurgency or communism, there are legitimate means to seek redress against it.
But not to suppress the exercise of the right to write or broadcast by knocking on doors to tell the reporter to avoid being a sympathizer for that is tantamount to the authorities being both a judge and an executioner bereft of the decency that must be accorded journalists in view of the nature of their profession.
According to Cordillera Police, charges will be filed against the individuals who will not adhere to their pleas. From that pronouncement, are they already judged as "left-leaning" individuals or "simply leftists? Again, from whose or what parameters will the definition of “left-leaning” and “leftist” will come from? If they do not stop being "such", what charges are they going to face? What are the legal basis?
We challenge the PROCor to show its list of the more than 300 "left-leaning" individuals including people from the government moreover members of the media for us not to be left in the dark and be surprised one day that people will be knocking on our doors. We also urge the police to give or provide legal bases why they addressed the individuals as such.
Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club
Inc.
March 4, 2021
March 4, 2021
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