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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Local media to intervene in Pen siege case
BAGUIO CITY -- The Supreme Court (SC) granted Baguio-based journalists the permission to intervene in the Manila Peninsula siege case filed by Manila-based media practitioners against top National Government officials.
In a ruling handed down in Government Register (GR) 181067 (Cecilia Oreña-Drilon et al versus Ronaldo Puno et al) and GR 181150 (Raoul Esperas et al versus Eduardo Ermita et al), the SC en banc noted the petition-in-intervention with a prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by a group of local journalists led by lawyer Pablito Sanidad dated February 18.
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The high court also required the respondents to comment on the petition within 10 days of notice or receipt of the order.
With Sanidad in filing the petition were Baguio-based media practitioners Arthur Allad-iw, Samuel Bautista, Desiree Caluza, Frank Cimatu, Brenda Subido-Dacpano, Artemio Dumlao, Dhobie de Guzman, Kathleen Okubo, Ernie Olson Jr., Rimaliza Opiña, Thom Picaña, Elina Velasco-Ramo, Cyrene Reyes, Tina Sales, and Andy Zapata.
The respondents in the cases include Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Avelino Razon Jr., National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief Geary Barias, and PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Director Asher Dolina.
According to the locally based interveners, "freedom of the press is not divisible. It cannot be claimed that it is not violated simply because it is denied to one sector of media, while the others in the provinces are seemingly ignored."
They pointed out that "the acts committed by the respondents and the threats they made, and continue to make, as alleged in the main petition by the Manila-based journalists, are committed against all members of the Philippine media and thus equally threaten all of them, including and especially the interveners, who are humble members of provincial media and who are more vulnerable than their colleagues in the Metro Manila area."
They explained the petition was made because "the acts, warnings, advisories and intimidations of the respondents produce the same, if not a greater fear and chilling effect, upon interveners of the provincial press because if the acts of the respondents could be committed against major and leading national media outfits, companies and journalists based in the Metro Manila area, it would be much easier for respondents and those under their command to stifle press freedom in the provinces, and inculcate fear among members of the provincial press and small media outfits."
They said while they were hundreds of kilometers away during the Manila Peninsula siege last November 29, 2007, they feel with equal effect the threats, intimidation, fear and apprehension that the Esperas petitioners felt as a result of the acts of the respondents.
"We would have done the same (act of entering the hotel being sieged by government troops) had we been there, as we feel that it would have been part of our duty and function to gather the news and to report the same to the public, who have the right to be informed," they stressed.
"We would do the same, should the same kind of incident have happened in Baguio, or anywhere else in the Cordillera," the petitioners said, adding that "We really dread to think that in the exercise of our calling, we would not only be warned, threatened and intimidated in a manner contrary to the constitutional guarantee of press freedom, but we could also be arrested without warrants, handcuffed and subjected to other indignities as some media practitioners who filed the Espera petition." (Ernie N. Olson Jr./Sun.Star Baguio/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (September 23, 2008 issue)
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