Human rights watchdog Karapatan called on the Philippine government to address and respond to the “very relevant, valid, competent, and independent comments and questions” raised by nine United Nations (UN) Special Procedures on the Anti-Terrorism Act, which the rights group assailed as a “monstrous and draconian piece of legislation that will heavily impact on the human rights situation in the Philippines.”
Extend Preparation through a 6-month Bridge Period, and Postpone School Opening to January 2021
In less than two months, School Year 2020-2021 shall commence despite
the rising cases of COVID-19. With no clear indication yet that all systems are
in place, public and private schools across the country are in varying stages
of preparation for the “new normal” of education.
As educators, we know the difficulties of implementing changes given a
short period of time, relying primarily on our initiative and ingenuity to get
things done for our learners. Parents and families are also grappling with
economic uncertainties.
Thus, we call on the Department of Education (DepEd) to consider
postponing the new school year to the first quarter of 2021 or January at the
earliest, while using the period from July to December 2020 to extend
preparations and help bridge stakeholders over present challenges towards a
more responsive education system.
The EFD shares in
the objective of ensuring the right and access to education of Filipino
learners, and believes that learning should continue despite the pandemic. But
we cannot support any rushed implementation without ensuring the maximum
support to the three most important stakeholders – teachers, learners and
parents.
Why an extension?
We submit the
following advantages of extending preparations through a 6-month bridge period:
1. This can be
used to fully prepare the needed infrastructure to train teachers and orient
parents and learners.
2. This can allow
students to further review and hone their understanding of the concepts learned
in previous school years. They can read in advance on concepts across future
grade level subjects.
3. This can give
DepEd enough time to review the K-12 curriculum, and possibly replace this with
a more people-centered and progressive curriculum.
Rushed continuity
plan
The DepEd only
released the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) this May, with
barely three months for teachers and school officials to prepare before the
August 24 opening.
We remember the
difficulties we faced in orienting and training to implement the K-12
Curriculum, but the situation at hand is far more daunting. Forced by the
pandemic, the public education system for the first time shall employ distance
learning on a wide-scale – through a combination of modular, online-based and
radio/TV-based instruction.
The EFD lists
down the following concerns with the BE-LCP:
1. The DepEd
states that there are 900,000 regular personnel employed in the public school
system, including 800,000 teachers, while there are 300,000 private school
teachers and personnel. Starting this July, public school teachers will be
required to report to office physically. There is no clarity whether the
equipment and infrastructure for minimum health standards such as protective
gears, disinfectant, detection, isolation and treatment facilities have been
installed in schools. We expect that the national government shall allot funds
to subsidize these provisions.
In relation to
this, we join the increasing calls of various sectors for greater State support
for both public and private school teachers through sustained wage subsidies
and other mechanisms at this time of disrupted incomes.
2. The DepEd says
that in areas where face-to-face classes will be allowed, the class size shall
be reduced to 15-20 learners to ensure physical distancing. We are concerned
about the implementability of this measure in terms of scheduling and space
considering lingering classroom shortages in public and smaller private
schools.
3. The DepEd
admits that only 2% of total learners in public schools have access to laptops
or tablets, while only 48% of public schools have internet connection. We share
in the public’s growing concern as to whether online-based learning will
actually work. The national government needs to provide increased funds to
secure free wifi and technical assistance to teachers and students, and ensure
connectivity especially in underserved areas.
4. The DepEd
admits that there are key operational challenges in the implementation of the
wider-scale Alternative Delivery Modalities. We educators know that these
challenges refer to the lack of training of personnel and uncertainties in the
provision of quality learning materials. We are concerned that only 40% of
public school teachers had been trained in Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) by DepEd according to the Senate Committee on Basic Education,
with “more intensive” trainings only happening this July.
5. Most importantly, we take exception to the move to reduce or
streamline the learning competencies to the “most essential” without a judicious
review of the K-12 curriculum. The EFD stands by its call to overhaul the K-12
framework and replace it with a nationalist, pro-people, and progressive
curriculum, where students learn not individualism and commercialism, but
social consciousness and solidarity. But a problematic curriculum further
streamlined means students will be learning even less this school year.
We reassert the
need for a curriculum framework that is nationalist, pro-people and
progressive, with renewed emphasis on humanities and social sciences.
Regardless of platform, whether face-to-face or through distance learning, the
teaching or instructional content remains the most important in shaping our
students towards being responsible and socially-conscious citizens.
We are not
assured by DepEd saying that “remediation and enhancement activities” shall be
given so no learner will be left behind. With no concrete details yet on the
promises made in the BE-LCP, we fear that majority of students will definitely
be left behind as educators face the most uncertain and rocky school year so
far.
Like how DepEd officials ask Senators to give
them a chance to implement the new learning plan, we educators ask the same of DepEd
– to listen to the various concerns being raised and do what is right for
learners and their families.
Groups urge SC to nullify anti-terror law
“Given the vast and greater powers bestowed under the law, it will have a wide-ranging effects of violating existing constitutionally-guaranteed rights of our people, thus, the issuance of a ?shield against injustice, a temporary restraining order, against its enforcement, effective until the finality of the judgment, is fair and prudent under the circumstances.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The Makabayan bloc filed a petition against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 at the Supreme Court on Monday, July 6.
The progressive lawmakers are asking the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional and nullify Republic Act 11479 or the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.”
The Makabayan bloc argues that several sections of the law clearly violates the rights protected by the Constitution such as freedom of speech.
Salient points of the petition include the following:
- Section 4 of the law violates right to free expression,
- Sections 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 22 violates the fundamental right to privacy,
- The designation power of the Anti-Terrorism Council under Section 25 violates the right to due process,
- The preliminary order of proscription under Section 26 and 27 is unconstitutional,
The detention without warrant of arrest under Section 29 and Section 34 violates constitutional right to bail.
The Makabayan bloc maintained that “given the vast and greater powers bestowed under the law, it will have a wide-ranging effects of violating existing constitutionally-guaranteed rights of our people, thus, the issuance of a ?shield against injustice, a temporary restraining order, against its enforcement, effective until the finality of the judgment, is fair and prudent under the circumstances.”
Read: 4 reasons why anti-terror bill should be junked
The petition questions the definition of terrorism and terrorist acts saying that the “definition is so broadly framed as to sweep any speech and any act which would otherwise be protected under Section 4 of the Bill of Rights.”
The Makabayan bloc noted that the five “terrorist acts” under the present law, “replace the predicate crime element in the old Human Security Act of 2007, and that the required element that the said acts result in widespread and extraordinary fear is completely erased.”
The Makabayan also asserts Section 29 of the law is also against the Constitution.
Under Section 29, arrest without warrant of arrest is allowed and a suspected “terrorist” can be detained for 14 to 24 days. The law enforcement authorities only needs a written authorization from the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).
The Makabayan said this violates the principle of separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution which states that “only a judge can issue arrest warrants, and that arrest warrants shall only be issued upon judicial determination of probable cause.”
It also added that the ATC which is composed Cabinet members plus the head of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) are all alter egos of the President.
“This council, is by definition and purpose, an administrative body statutorily created. The ATC is not part of the judiciary,” the petition read.
“The determination of probable cause for purposes of issuing a warrant of arrest and the issuance of arrest order itself are exclusively a judicial function as the constitution absolutely prohibits a non-judicial entity to do such,” it added.
The Makabayan bloc said while it recognizes the need address terrorism as well as other serious crimes against the citizens, addressing these problems should never erode the peoples’ basic rights in the pursuit of national security.
“It must never be done through unconstitutional means, otherwise, the enforcers are susceptible to turn into terrorists themselves, terrorizing the members of society by depriving them of the mantle of protection accorded by Constitution. A draconian law such as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 has no place in a democratic society, and must therefore be struck down,” the petition read.
Read: Why the anti-terror bill is sanctioned state terrorism
In the petition, the Makabayan bloc highlighted Section 4, Article III of the 1987 Constitution which protects the freedom of speech, of expression and of the press as well as the right of the people to assembly and petition the government for redress of grievances.
Article III of the 1987 Constitution which protects the freedom of speech, of expression and of the press as well as the right of the people to assembly and petition the government for redress of grievances.
“A government with a genuine respect for these liberties allows, and even encourages, the articulation of the unorthodox view, though it be hostile to, or derided by others; or though such view ?induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Its scope is so broad that it extends protection to nearly all forms of communication,” the petition read.
They lamented that even before the passage of the law, they have been linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army which state security forces label as “terrorist groups.”
“We are not terrorists, and neither are our party-list groups. But notwithstanding almost two decades of being part of the House of Representatives in this Republic, state security forces have been treating us and our officers and members as ?enemies of the state merely because we dare call for the investigation of their human rights violations, overpriced contracts in their budget, and corruption in issues such as ghost soldiers or the ?pabaon and ?pasalubong of their generals,” they said.
“Worse, several of our leaders and members have been killed while others are being deprived of liberty on false charges,” the petitioners said.
Petitioners are Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite, and Eufemia Cullamat; Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas; ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro; and Kabataan Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago, as well as former legislators and heads of the progressive party-lists, namely, Bayan Muna President Saturnino Ocampo, Makabayan Co-Chairperson Liza Largoza Maza, Makabayan Chairperson Neri J. Colmenares, ACT Teachers President Antonio Tinio, Anakpawis Vice-President Ariel Casilao, and Makabayan Secretary General Nathanael Santiago.
This is the fourth petition against the law since President Duterte signed RA 11479 on July 3.
The first petition was filed by the De La Salle brothers led by Brother Armin Luistro and Atty. Howard Calleja of the Calleja Law Firm. Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman filed the second petition, while the third was filed by the group of Atty. Mel Sta. Maria, dean of the Far Eastern University College of Law.
The post Groups urge SC to nullify anti-terror law appeared first on Bulatlat.
International community urged to continue monitoring human rights in PH
They appealed to the member-States of the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt and endorse High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s report, including recommendations for continuous monitoring and independent and impartial investigation of the human rights situation in the country.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A day after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act or Republic Act Republic Act 11479, human rights defenders appealed to the international community to keep an eye on the Philippines.
Beverly Longid, global coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMDSL), said that with the signing of the law, the indigenous peoples and their communities are in great danger.
“Our assertions for land rights, against destructive projects like corporate dams and destructive mining has led to the militarization of our territories and countless civil and political rights violations such as killings arrests and torture,” Longid said in a virtual press conference July 4 organized by the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice).
Longid appealed to the member-States of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) to adopt and endorse High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s report, including recommendations for continuous monitoring and independent and impartial investigation of the human rights situation in the country.
#DuterteLegacy | 4 years of gross human rights violations, impunity
Bachelet’s office verified the killings of 208 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists, including 30 women in January 2015 and December 2019.
Like Longid, Fhillip D. Sawali, chief of staff of Sen. Leila De Lima, said the High Commissioner’s report and the joint call of the UN Special Rapporteurs “are moral and legal victories” for human rights defenders in the Philippines.
Sawali said these “should weave impetus to the UN HRC, the International Criminal Tribunal and other instruments of justice such as Magnitsky Sanctions regime in some government to commence their monumental task of exacting real accountability, ensuring redress for victims and their families and signaling a definitive end to the mass atrocities and other serious violations committed by Duterte, his co-conspirators and accomplices.”
De Lima was arrested in February 2017 after she called for an international investigation for the extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
In a statement, De Lima said the Anti-Terror Law is “a prescription straight from a dictator’s playbook.”
Attacks to intensify
De Lima added that the new law “is an added instrument in Duterte’s tool kit to further stifle criticisms and dissent, and muffled calls for truth and accountability for his regime’s abuses and ineptitude.”
For Longid, the Anti-Terrorism Act would further criminalize the indigenous people’s struggle for right to self-determination and defense of their ancestral land.
“The indigenous peoples’ actions against projects without their free prior informed consent can now be interpreted as acts intended to cause intensive damage to a government facility or a private property or can be misconstrued as intended to cause damage or destruction to critical infrastructure such as the on going people’s barricade against Oceana Gold in Nueva Vizcaya and protest against Kaliwa Kanan Laiban Dam in Aurora and Quezon provinces and the New Clark City in Central Luzon,” Longid said.
She added that even humanitarian action in this time of the pandemic is being vilified such as the cases of the Serve the People Brigade in the Cordillera and Cagayan Valley and the Lingkod Katribu in Tanay, Rizal.
“Under the law this can be seen as providing support to terrorists. Because to start with, we have been always accused by the military and police as terrorists. And this would deny the indigenous peoples the necessary relief amid the COVID-19,” Longid said.
Longid herself is accused of being a terrorist. She was included in the more than 600 persons listed in Department of Justice’s petition to declare Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army as terrorists. Due to public outrage, she and hundreds others were removed from the list.
Read: How the legal system is used to attack political dissenters
Llore Pasco, whose two sons were killed in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, said that the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 will further escalate the number of human rights violations in the country.
“Before this law, mothers are already anxious and worried. This is much worse than martial law (of dictator Ferdinand Marcos),” she said, adding that suspected “terrorists” will be jailed for a maximum of 24 days.
Pasco labeled Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s statement at the UNHRC last June 30 as lies.
She asked why the inter-agency panel that will investigate the killings of drug suspects was formed only now, after four years since Duterte assumed office.
Pasco said families of victims of drug-related killings have been “stigmatized, marginalized and even threatened.”
“Those of us who have mustered the courage to request copies of police reports, blotters, autopsies, and other official documents know how much persistence and courage it took to ask for them. We were met with both disinterest and derision. With Duterte’s signing into law of the Anti-Terrorism Act, we find it hard to be hopeful that things are going to get better for human rights under this administration,” Pasco said.
Still, Pasco said the people should still continue fighting. “Laban lang,” she said.
Longid also said, “There is no stopping as long as there are many of us, fighting for the people’s rights.”
The post International community urged to continue monitoring human rights in PH appeared first on Bulatlat.
‘Deeper in debt but shallow in COVID-19 response, aid to the poor’
Despite these loans, government was only able to spend P98.3 billion for 17.5 million households as of June 27. According to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, the subsidy amounts to just P53 per family or P12 per person per day for the past 106 days since the COVID-19 lockdown started.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate lamented that while Duterte administration incurred huge loans during the pandemic, “assistance to the poor is inadequate and slow.”
Just recently, Philippines and Japan signed COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan amounting to P23.5 billion.
Another report revealed that the Philippines has a running total of loan worth of $7.76 billion from Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Agence Francaise de Developpement and through issuance of bonds.
Despite these loans, government was only able to spend P98.3 billion for 17.5 million households as of June 27. According to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, the subsidy amounts to just P53 per family or P12 per person per day for the past 106 days since the COVID-19 lockdown started.
The number of beneficiaries is small considering the impact of the lockdown to poor and middle-class families. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, 3,012 companies have closed down, leaving thousands of workers unemployed.
Ibon Foundation estimates that there are 14 million unemployed. The combined number of underemployed and unemployed is 20.4 million. Ibon described this as the worst crisis of unemployment in the country’s history.
In a virtual press conference on Saturday, July 4 organized by Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice), Zarate also underscored the administration’s poor response to the health crisis. He said that cases of COVID-19 continue to increase despite having the longest lockdown in the world.
Zarate was responding to some member-States of the United Nations Human Rights Council which commended the Philippine government for its purportedly good record on the promotion and protection of social, cultural, economic rights including its response to the pandemic during the 44th regular session on June 30. It is also on this day that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also presented her comprehensive report on human rights situation in the Philippines.
“I think there is nothing to congratulate on that,” Zarate said.
Zarate added that the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is in fact very telling that the government has wrong priorities in the time of the pandemic.
Daisy Arago, executive director of Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) also believes that “there is nothing commendable about the response of the government to the pandemic, especially for the working masses.”
Arago also said that instead of receiving aid from government, the poor are being arrested and detained, citing the case of the jeepney drivers, collectively called as Piston 6. Two of them contracted COVID-19 while in detention.
Meanwhile, Sonny Africa, executive director of Ibon Foundation, said the government can utilize enough funds which can be use dfor socially urgent expenses such as health and emergency relief but government has other priorities.
Africa said P989 billion is alloted for infrastructure for this year. “But since President Duterte has already promised the investors the profit for these projects, they are not using it even if some of these are not economically and financially liable,” he said.
Africa said P451 billion is appropriated for debt service and P582 billion for principal payments.
He added that the government also plans to lower the corporate income tax through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act. There is at least P667 billion to be spent for the subsidy of private corporations, Africa said.
“This is unfortunate because, once again, the poor are left behind,” Africa said.
The increasing government debt, he said, means another tax to be shouldered by the poor and middle class.
The post ‘Deeper in debt but shallow in COVID-19 response, aid to the poor’ appeared first on Bulatlat.
International Climate Activists, including Greta Thunberg, Support the Call to #JunkTerrorLaw
Climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, internationally renowned environmental activist, supports the call to #JunkTerrorLaw. The Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 in the Philippines which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last July 4, 2020 has been subjected to a lot of criticisms and concerns from different sectors, and youth climate activists around the world are now standing in solidarity with climate activists in the Philippines.
“Please support the climate activists in the Philippines! #JunkTerrorLaw @YACAPhilippines” said Greta Thunberg in a tweet while quoting a tweet from the international Fridays for Future youth climate movement saying “We stand in solidarity with climate activists in the Philippines. The Anti-Terror law puts climate activists and environmental defenders at risk of being tagged as terrorists. Join the digital action by posting a picture with #JunkTerrorLaw and tagging @yacaphilippines”
Several youth climate movements from different countries like India, Germany, Russia, London, Portugal, Taiwan, Lebanon, Pakistan, France, and more have posted about the so-called terror law expressing their concerns about the possible abuse and the risks that environmental defenders will experience, especially since the Philippines is already known as the most dangerous country for environmental defenders even without this law.
Fridays for Future Digital, the digital arm of the international youth climate movement has taken it a step further by creating an online toolkit that translates an explanation of the law into different languages and encourages people from different countries to call the Philippine embassy in their countries and to email their local leaders and leaders in the Philippines to junk the terror law.
“Climate justice will always be a call for social justice. We must hold the government accountable for their actions, especially actions that put people’s lives at risk. No matter what happens, you can count on the Filipino youth to keep fighting for a society where climate justice and social justice are the new normal.” said Mitzi Tan, convener of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP).
The ABS-CBN Shutdown and Democracy
COMMUNICATION academics, media advocacy groups, human rights defenders, journalists’ organizations, artists and other professionals, and even some congressmen and senators have condemned the shutdown of ABS-CBN.
But national artist for literature F. Sionil Jose is among the very few writers who’re supporting the silencing of the network. The Philippine Center of PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) International, which he organized in 1958, is itself critical of the government order, and has correctly described it as an assault on free expression and press freedom, and therefore on democracy—or what little is left of it.
Sionil Jose weighed in on the issue in a Facebook post and a patronizing column in a Manila broadsheet. He argued that “Filipinos do not really need ABS-CBN” and that its being forced off the air doesn’t undermine press freedom. Since “it does not produce goods or food,” no one should mourn the network shutdown because “it did not diminish poverty.”
Describing the network owners, the Lopezes, as oligarchs, Sionil Jose claimed that by diminishing their power, the shutdown of ABS-CBN brings the country closer to the realization of the “revolution” that he believes is the only solution to the poverty of the majority, particularly the peasantry. The “demise” of ABS-CBN, he concluded, will be “good for democracy” because it will help end the rule of the oligarchy.
An oligarchy is quite simply the rule of the few. It might well be asked if the Lopezes are among the handful of families that lord it over this country. If they are, they should have had no problem in getting Congress to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN. But the most recent developments suggest that the end of the network may indeed be imminent.
The House of Representatives has reneged on its earlier promise to give the network a provisional, five-month permit, while the the National Telecommunication Commission, at the time this piece was being written, has asked the Supreme Court not to issue a temporary restraining order against its May 5 “cease and desist” order shutting down its operations. ABS-CBN executives have already alerted the company’s 11,000 employees of the distinct possibility that they will lose their jobs by August this year.
Wealth the Lopezes may indeed have, but wealth alone does not make any family part of the oligarchy. One also needs political influence at least, if not actual power.
It’s supposed to be a democracy, but the Philippines is ruled by an oligarchy—or more precisely, by bureaucrat capitalists who use their political power to enrich themselves. But whether the Lopez family qualifies as part of those few or not seems hardly at issue at this point. Throwing the oligarchs out for the sake of democratizing Philippine governance does matter, but will throwing out one oligarch make the difference? With or without the Lopezes, the oligarchy will still be in power, and Sionil Jose’s “revolution” unlikely.
What’s even more to the point is that through an orchestrated campaign that has included President Rodrigo Duterte’s repeated threat to make sure its franchise is not renewed so it will be “out,” and the mobilization of at least two agencies of the government as well as members of Congress, it is that very oligarchy that has been focused on silencing the network.
Sionil Jose’s declaration that the country won’t lose anything with the ABS-CBN shutdown provokes another question. Is the value of an entity decided solely by whether or not it produces material goods and food? Like writers such as Sionil Jose himself, the best journalists and media workers produce neither, but their work does have value.
By reporting and explaining what’s happening in their country and the rest of the world, they help their fellow men and women understand their social and natural environments not only so they can better function in them, but also to enable them to make the informed decisions that can make the difference between being slaves of circumstances or prevailing over them.
The Constitution so understands the value of the media to democratic governance, and that of press freedom and free expression, that it explicitly protects both in Article III Section 4 of its Bill of Rights. Both freedoms are the necessary complements to the people’s Constitutional right to know, which includes the prerogative to choose which medium or source of information they prefer to access, but which the shutdown now severely limits.
Sionil Jose said Filipinos “don’t really need” ABS-CBN. But the value of the reports the network used to provide over radio and free TV was plainly demonstrated during last May 14-17’s typhoon Ambo, when some of the people in the hardest-hit areas, because of the shutdown of their usual sources of information, turned out to have been unaware that a typhoon was going to smash into their communities and were therefore unprepared for it.
It is nevertheless true, as Sionil Jose points out, that, barring government intervention and other catastrophes, there are other media organizations that will continue their operations. But like ABS-CBN, those networks and newspapers are also owned and controlled by political and economic interests. The difference is that the latter are demonstrably better connected politically than the former. One had no problem renewing its 25-year franchises, and has not been the target of government intimidation and harassment.
The media are powerful institutions that can shape collective opinion, decide the agenda of public discourse, move people to action, and in general influence the ideas, attitudes and values of the multitude. Their power over the public mind makes vital the question of whether individual journalists and other practitioners are able to report truthfully and fairly those events and issues that affect the lives of billions all over the world.
The political and economic interests of media owners are too often a major factor in the way media provide news and entertainment. But if this is the general rule, it isn’t by itself enough to justify condemnation of the entire corporate media community. What is needed is to establish what is happening on the ground, which requires content analysis of the reporting, commentary, and analysis that Philippine media provide, as well as research into the extent of owner control over media content.
Media critics and analysts have so far found that ABS-CBN reporting has been relatively fair to government and other entities. Meanwhile, intervention in the operations of other media companies in behalf of the political and economic interests of their owners has been uneven. In print, some have been known to dictate what will appear on the front and opinion pages, while others leave it to professional staff to make such decisions unless a report, analysis or opinion piece is of particular relevance to advancing or compromising those interests.
These realities help explain the seeming vagaries of Philippine media performance. But what is critical at this time to understanding what’s at stake in the shutdown of ABS-CBN is the context in which it is happening. Other news organizations and individual journalists have been harassed and threatened, barred from coverage, and criminal libel and other cases even filed against them because their reportage, analysis and commentary, like those of ABS-CBN, were not to the liking of the oligarchs who rule the country.
It should be more than evident that these acts are forms of censorship. They are hardly “good for democracy.” On the contrary: despite the wealth and economic interests of its present owners, ABS-CBN’s continuing its operations is what would be.
Prof. Luis V. Teodoro is the national chairperson of the Altermidya Network. This post first appeared in Vantage Point published by BusinessWorld.
The post The ABS-CBN Shutdown and Democracy appeared first on AlterMidya.