The Philippine Press is the Freest in Asia

I was reading our book in Mass Media Law when I came across the line "The Philippine Press (and the rest of the mass media) have once again been declared as the freest in Asia". Looking at the footnote of the stunning statement, it was uttered way back 19 years ago. Stunning, because as soon as I have realized the meaning of the sentence, pictures of the recent carnage in Maguindanao came flashing in my mind. The statement did not fit the status quo of the mediamen in the country.

It was barely a week ago when Mangudadatu's wife, armed with no defense other than her female lawyers, attempted to file the Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) of her husband. Challenging the dominant regime in ARMM, incumbent Buluan Vice Mayor Ishmael "Toto" Mangudadatu would clash head-on with the Ampatuans in the upcoming elections for the governorship of the region.

Magudadatu sent her wife and a number of his female lawyers in the first step of his challenge, believing that his opponents would respect their "unwritten sacred law" on not doing harms to women. However, greed and scorn overshadowed the faith and respect for the holy laws of the Ampatuans. Then the next scenarios painted another history in the Philippine journalism, and tainted the image of the country in the map of the world's highly-treasured democracy.

Alongside Magudadatu’s wife and her lawyers’ inhumane death were that of civilians’ unmindful of the political rivalry, and 27 journalists whose intention was only to deliver the historic courageous attempt of a politician to face a big man in their region. Counting first as the worst killing ever made (the highest number of killed mediamen in one event), this has made the Philippines earn the top rank among the most atrocious place to live for journalists.

What was worse with this massacre was that they were killed using the machinery OF the government. The machinery that had acquired using the money from the people's taxes. It seemed like the people became part of the massacre - in the capitalizing of the guns, backhoe, and the militant civilians whose salaries have come from their pockets (through taxes.) And now the issue of selecting A great, conscientious and honest Leader would set in.

The 27 journalists had not been killed because they were journalists, seeing the motive of the evil-doers which is to simply wipe-out whoever would be around in the crime scene (unfortunately, their presence counted). Be that as it may, this was not only an “unfortunate” incident for the faithfuls of the journalism field. Time and again, contemptuous killings against journalists have been done – not simply by anyone, but by those who have the three G’s (goons, guns and gold). Sadly, though, a considerable part of these killings were related with those who have "respected" names in the land.

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I had finished reading our assigned chapter in the book and realized that the whole idea of the Philippines' "freest press" was debunked - not by the unjust killings of the Filipino journalists, but by the book itself. Because right after the aforementioned positive statement regarding free press was this: "It was not only that way". Fully disproving the idea, the authors declared, "Freedom of expression and mass media independence have been curtailed during critical moments in Philippine history to preserve the stranglehold on political power by the foreign and domestic elite and their representatives."

This was yet another "critical moment" in Philippine history. Goons in the political arena were again on-the-go "to preserve their stranglehold on political power".

The stranglehold on political power: the evil in Philippine democracy.