Saturday, February 28, 2009 Pimentel ought to withdraw right of reply bill By Cong Corrales
A MINDANAO legislator has added his voice to the mounting opposition against the right of reply bill, a proposal viewed by media groups as an attempt to muzzle the press.
In a phone interview Friday, Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon 2nd district Representative Teofisto Guingona III said he could not understand the "dogged insistence" of Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. in pushing for the enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 2150, or the controversial right of reply bill, even as his fellow principal authors have already dropped their support for it.
The House counterpart of the SB 2150 is being sponsored by Representative Monico Puentevilla.
"Ang dili nako masabtan nganong gipamugos gyud ni niya [Pimentel] bisan paman nga mikalas na silang Chiz [Escudero] ug Mar [Roxas]," Guingona said.
Guingona noted with respect the solid track record of Pimentel as staunch defender of civil liberties.
Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro tried to contact Pimentel Friday but to no avail.
Senators Escudero and Roxas have withdrawn their co-authorship of the Senate version of the bill. "It was a mistake supporting SB 2150," said Escudero in an emailed statement.
Guingona explained that if passed into law, SB 2150 is sure to water down press freedom, a principal feature of the 1987 Constitution formulated in the wake of the downfall of a dictatorial rule in the Philippines.
A right of reply bill as conceived under SB 2150 is so vague, Guingona said, adding that it can become a tool for enterprising politicians and journalists to continually spin supposedly public interest discussions that are used as a veil to promote a certain personality.
A politician can "hire" a journalist to "attack" him and so the newspaper will be obliged to set aside a space for his "reply" and the cycle could go on and on.
"Murag sarzuela nalang dayon ang mga balita, lisud na mahibaw-an unsay tinuod," he opined.
Editorial control over newspaper space, the editors' judgment on what is newsworthy from what is hogwash, will be taken from the hands of news executives should the bill becomes a law, Guingona said.
"Kanunay mo ma-control," he said, referring to the media.
"Suma-total wala nay news; dili na maka deliver og legitimate news kay nahigot na sa espasyo nga ihatag sa reply sa pulitiko," he added.
"Labi na karon nga duol na ang eleksyon," he pointed out.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., meanwhile, said the right to reply bill being pushed in Congress does not violate the constitutional provision prohibiting the passage of a law abridging the freedom of the press.
Gonzalez said the proposed right to reply measure does not constitute prior restraint on freedom of the press, because it does not intend to curtail the right of journalists to publish stories critical to certain public officials and personalities.
Aside from Senators Roxas and Escudero, former broadcast journalist, Senator Loren Legarda, had also announced her withdrawal of support for the right of reply bill.
"I am withdrawing my support from the right to reply bill because an untrammeled press is better than a press that is dictated to by authority. Our Constitution says that 'No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press'," Loren declared.
"It is my strong conviction that any law dictating to the media what to write, what to publish, or what to broadcast is a violation of this provision against one of the important pillars democratic freedom," Legarda said.
"It is true that there is no absolute right. The freedom of the press or expression is not absolute because it is still subject to the laws of libel or slander," Legarda said. (With reports from Sunnex)
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