Hey enrico pangan it seems they are trying to make the sword more mightier than the pen
- From: "Agrie Kieber" <sylviapatis@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Feb 2006 18:37:53 -0800
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came under fire in the Senate
yesterday for allegedly attempting to muzzle the media as a prelude to
an assault on basic civil liberties.
Senator Joker Arroyo urged the media to oppose administration efforts
to control the press. "Defy the government ... continue
publishing," he told reporters.
"If you want to control the civil liberties of the people, you start
with media. That's what government is trying to do. They are now
trying to curtail media as a start," Arroyo said.
Following the President's declaration of a state of emergency on
Friday, the Philippine National Police raided the office of the Daily
Tribune.
PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao has also warned that police will
take over media facilities if they do not comply with government
standards.
Senate President Franklin Drilon, Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan
and Senators Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, Rodolfo Biazon and Pia Cayetano
yesterday filed a resolution seeking
an inquiry into government acts in connection with Proclamation No.
1017.
Other senators have signified their intention to sponsor the measure.
Senators denounce raid
In the resolution, they condemned the police raid on the Tribune's
editorial office and the arrest of private citizens, as well as
lawmakers critical of the Arroyo administration.
The senators also maintained that a state of emergency neither
suspended the Constitution nor limited civil liberties, basic human
rights, freedom of the press and other basic rights enshrined in the
fundamental law.
"How can we expect our people to adhere to the rule of law if the
highest office in the land can so easily twist and circumvent the
fundamental law to meet its desired ends?" Pangilinan said.
Earlier in the day, Liberal Party members in the Senate and the House
of Representatives held a caucus and agreed to question on the floor
the legality of government acts carried out in connection with the
proclamation.
"This is an intimidating act. They first targeted Tribune. Who's
next?" Biazon said.
News stories toned down?
"Do you know what I notice now? The stories have been toned down,"
he said, holding a daily. "Even the commentaries have been toned
down. Which means the objective of the proclamation is now slowly being
achieved."
Arroyo said any law, executive order or government action that ran
counter to the constitutionally protected rights of the press,
expression and speech "is unenforceable."
"Even if the people exercise free speech and expression, or assemble
to redress their grievances, nothing will come out of it unless media
reports it freely," he said.
"Thus, the President cannot, under the guise of national emergency or
public interest, arbitrarily order the takeover or direct the news
content of television or radio stations and thereby deprive the public
of free and balanced information."
"Such an assertion of the government cannot prevail over the superior
right of freedom of the press, expression and speech," he added.
NTC can't close radio, TV
Arroyo said the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) or any
government body was not empowered to draw up guidelines on what
electronic media could or could not air "because that amounts to
prior restraint which is constitutionally impermissible."
"They can only regulate the airwaves but they cannot say that they
will close (down radio or TV stations)," he said.
"I'm chair of the committee on public services and legislative
franchises so I know it by heart. They do not have any power to oversee
media," he added.
The maverick administration senator slammed Lomibao's threat to take
over recalcitrant media.
"How can a policeman understand freedom of the press? He's a
policeman," Arroyo said.
Total press ban not allowed
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said that even during a national
emergency, "government may not impose a total ban on mass media"
because free speech "occupies the highest priority in the hierarchy
of constitutional values."
She said the constitutional provision that authorized the government to
"temporarily direct the operation of any privately owned public
utility or business affected with public interest" was not found
under the constitutional article on the executive department, but
"under the article on national economy and patrimony."
"This provision is applicable, not to a national emergency affecting
political stability, but to a national emergency affecting the
economy," said Santiago, also an administration senator.
"Since 1017 applies mainly to political emergency, the invocation of
this economic provision has marginal relevance," she said.
"It cannot be used as a basis for restricting mass media, unless the
media report is directly related to the promotion of a coup d'état
or rebellion," she added.
President urged to cease, desist
Saying that "those who wield the gun and not those who wield the
pen" were its enemies, Senator Ralph Recto advised Malacañang to
"cease and desist" from taking actions which "abridge the freedom
of the press."
He warned the Palace that it will lose "the battle for public opinion
if it alienates through underhanded tactics the very sector that shapes
it."
"Malacañang should not pick up a fight with those who buy ink by the
barrel," Recto said.
"If democracy is under attack, then you tap the most potent weapon in
its arsenal, which is a free press. You don't launch a counterattack
on the media, but you use it in winning people over to your side," he
said.
Recto said "democracy can never be invoked" in curtailing the
freedom of the press.
Recklessly conceived
He described as "recklessly conceived" the assertion that some
members of the media had "recklessly magnified" the "claims" of
alleged conspirators.
"As far as I know, there were no screaming headlines calling on
people to rise against the government," Recto said.
"On the contrary, it was media's untrammeled coverage of the
demonstrations which probably saved the day for the government. If
there was a news blackout, people would have believed the propaganda
that a million people are massing up on EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos
Avenue)," he said.
"But because the rallies were covered live by TV, they knew the real
score."
Recto said the people "know how to process information; they know
chaff from the grain, substance from spin."
During the swearing-in of a new set of officers of the PNP Press Corps
in his office, Lomibao insisted that freedom of the press was "not
absolute."
"These are not normal times, we are in a state of national
emergency," he said.
Media attacks on government were "not good for the economy," the
police chief said.
In a statement signed by 124 students, faculty members and
administrative staff, the University of the Philippines' College of
Mass Communication demanded that the President rescind her emergency
proclamation, saying "it clearly undermines the role of the free
press in the country."
.
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