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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Editorial: Wrong call to arms
THE arrest and subsequent release of dxIF Bombo Radyo broadcaster Alex Adonis for illegal possession of firearms charges casts a black eye on the local media profession for now and we doubt seriously if the public would ever have that same amount of trust even if Adonis is later cleared of the charges.
As we saw it, Adonis claimed that he merely wanted to stop an altercation at a local nightspot when he fired his gun that was supposedly issued a memorandum and mission order from a unit of the Fourth Infantry Division (4th ID).
Fourth ID spokesman Colonel (or was it Major?) Alexander Bravo confirmed this in an interview with dxIF Bombo Radyo spokesman Manny Augustero.
As to be expected, this opportunity was too good to pass up for critics of the radio station and so lone opposition Councilor Zaldy Ocon went to town with his tirades on Adonis, whom he accused of lambasting him on air without any basis while sucking up to the station's supposed patron Mayor Vicente Emano.
Undaunted, the radio station fought back with Augustero reciting the litany of abuses committed by Councilor Ocon before his assumption into office; the gun-toting of his son at a local store, the broadcaster's beating of a Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) aide and so on.
While it is unsightly and downright nauseating to hear rival radio stations display their dirty linen on the air--especially the name-calling like "Otok Otiot" and "Radyo Abu Sayaff"--Ocon did have a point when he mentioned that it was unusual for Adonis to be released under police custody if one were to use as basis the Robin Padilla guns case that was shot down by the Supreme Court.
One has to go back to the records to determine if Adonis's release to police custody is allowed under the law. But more importantly it gives the impression rightly or wrongly that Mayor Vicente Emano has a hand in having Adonis spared from the indignity of being imprisoned for several days.
For its part dxIF Bombo Radyo tried to clear its name by having station manager Jun Albino present the memo requiring Adonis to explain his side on the incident. And there is the likelihood that while he may be penalized, he may either be transferred or sacked from the station.
But what is bothersome here is the fact that amid the killings done on media practitioners here we have the spectacle of one radioman being arrested for using a firearm without any threat at all on his life--that is if Adonis stands by his version of the story.
Lucky for him there was a witness who corroborated his account. But we ask whether there was any other way to quell the disturbance to the peace. Adonis could have found a way to call the police and let them handle the situation.
Instead by using his firearm, he stepped beyond the line separating media as observer and chronicler of events and became an accessory to the incident.
We remember former Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) President Jerry Orcullo saying media has the right to bear arms if their lives depended on it.
The Adonis incident certainly isn't one example of the basis behind that call. It only highlights the fact that there are some sectors in the media that are no different from the trigger-happy police officers whom we have been carping and harping about.
That the word responsibility has been lost on them. And while media practitioners can be whistle-blowers they're not supposed to be gunmen. Any claims to responsibility or even self-respectability is lost once we partake of the violence other than self-defense.
In light of this incident we must ask: if the protectors can't protect us from themselves is there anyone out there who can protect us from ourselves or from us hurting other people?
(April 27, 2005 issue)
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