Sunday, October 05, 2008 Cariño: The Cesear Reyes incident By Linda Grace Cariño Paradigm Shift
THERE is much ado among the Baguio media about People's Journal photo correspondent Cesear Reyes being detained a couple of weeks ago by the police.
Among others, my friend and neighbor on this page, Mike Guimbatan, weighed in on it just last Sunday. The National Press Club has condemned Reyes's treatment by the police as inhumane. The Commission on Human Rights is reportedly going to conduct an investigation of the matter...
Let me add to the discussion. My concern is with context.
It seems that a good number of pieces about the Cesear Reyes incident have a slant that presents Reyes as a victim of police brutality/harassment in the classic context of media being beleaguered by the police because of the media's coverage of controversial issues, especially against powers that be.
Immediately, what comes to mind in this context are those clips of busloads of media people - some manacled even, being hurried away from last year's Manila Pen standoff. Even here, whether or not that was harassment is still hotly debated. Be that as it may...
It cannot be denied that there is cause for media to cry foul over police harassment. Now governor and media personality Grace Padaca is living testimony to it. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines files that document it is thick and heavy. In any country and throughout history, there has always been tension between those who wield power because they have authority and guns and the Fourth Estate.
May we then vet the Reyes incident against that context? Does Reyes have a history for covering the police and putting them in a negative light, deservedly or not? Was he in the line of duty (as photo correspondent) when he was hauled to the police station the night of the incident? In other words, does this incident belong in the context of media - as MEDIA - being harassed by the police?
Let us be fair. What we have here is an incident of a man with a gun - who'd been drinking - in a vehicular accident, resulting in an altercation with the owner of the other vehicle involved. The attendant melee involved the cops, the prosecutor's office, and so on. Perhaps Reyes was wrongfully detained. Perhaps he was victimized by the police. Perhaps procedures were not followed. Perhaps his human rights were violated. Also, perhaps not.
But let us not give the Cesear Reyes incident the noble patina where a member of the Fourth Estate is embattled by military might and power intent on suppressing truth, justice, and democracy. It would be totally out of context to do so and highly irresponsible. Not to mention that it debases that very context where journalists are indeed an endangered species because they do their jobs despite being up against goons, guns, and gold.
