Author: Julian Alejandro

INQ7’s Rowena Guanzon wrote:

We have heard all sorts of jokes, and true to the nature of Filipinos, Erap won votes with his Erap jokes. But the “revelation” of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago that she heard from a “chattering relative” of Senate President Franklin Drilon that Cory Aquino and Drilon are involved in a plot to hatch a coup d’état or to “physically remove” Gloria Arroyo by Oct. 15, is not funny. Cory Aquino plotting to murder someone? Ridiculous. Preposterous. Incredible. (E-mail me if you know of other fitting words).

My choice of adjective is “insane.”

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
Press Statement
October 4, 2005

There seems to be no end to threats to press freedom in the Philipines after another journalist was attacked Tuesday morning outside his office in General Santos City.

Danilo Aguirre, a correspondent for the Mindanao Bulletin, is fighting for his life as of this writing at General Santos Doctors’ Hospital after he suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Whatever the motive of the attack, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) strongly condemns the shooting as we continue to condemn and call the attention of the government to the series of
threats and killings of journalists in the country.

The brazen attack on Aguirre is an attack on media. It is a reflection of the government’s failure to ensure security not only for journalists but for all Filipinos, especially those in the provinces who complain of human rights violations as our leaders busy themselves with politics in the capital.

The NUJP calls on the authorities to immediately investigate the attack on Aguirre and arrest the culprits. We reiterate our call for the government to immediately resolve the cases of killings of journalists.

Jose Torres Jr.
Chairman
Commission for the Protection of Journalists
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Removal and TXTPower promise to bring a new feature to the anti-Gloria campaign with a Hello Garci computer game.

“Before we had the Hello Garci ringtones. Now, software engineers and college students are finalizing the Hello Garci computer games which will be the next craze among the youth. Our protests are becoming more sophisticated,” Youth-Dare spokesperson Mong Palatino said.

INQ7 reports on the details of the game:

Cybersquatters have taken over the Internet domain names that has Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman’s name.

The domain name laraquigaman.com leads surfers to the porn site Young Asian, while preciouslaraquigaman.com has been bought by an unlisted registrant on September 26 and is now being offered for sale at a minimum for a minimum price of $500.

Meanwhile, laraquigaman.net redirects to a page with Precious Lara Quigaman’s picture and a link to her official website. This page is hosted by youth e-zine Tinig.com.

In his paper “Forgetting, or Not Knowing: Media and Martial Law,” Prof. Luis Teodoro said Martial Law “left a legacy of secrecy that up to now, 27 years later, (he delivered the paper in 1999 during a conference on the legacies of the Marcos dictatorship at the Ateneo de Manila University) is still very much in government.” This legacy of secrecy, he said, is seen in the journalists’ limited access to information, and cited that police officers sometimes even consider the police blotter as “classified.” Indeed, secrecy has become one of the characteristics of how the government operates.

People Power 2 promised to abolish this system of secrecy. When Arroyo became President after Joseph Estrada’s ouster, she said in her inaugural address:

To ensure that our gains are not dissipated through corruption, we must improve moral standards. As we do so, we create fertile ground for good governance based on a sound moral foundation, a philosophy of transparency, and an ethic of effective implementation.

But then again, those were Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s words.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, who was recently cited for contempt by the Senate for refusing to answer questions on a controversial contract he signed with an American law firm, reportedly needs to undergo a heart bypass. It is sad that he suddenly became so ill. It seems that he is the only person–other than Arroyo–who could answer the questions about the lobbying contract for charter change that he signed with Venable LPP. His operation would mean those questions will remain unanswered until he recovers.

Gonzales, who heads the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas, has been an activist for most of his life. That he is now one of the rabid defenders of an unpopular president like Arroyo surely puzzles many of us. Here are some articles that would help us understand the person:

A Newsbreak article, Unraveling Norberto Gonzales traces his career from his early activism to his stint with the current administration. Meanwhile, Manila Times’ From the streets to government service meanwhile chronicles not just his career, but also his personal life.

Whether you love him or hate him, I’m sure he’ll still be on the news for some time.

Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) has just released “Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents,” a manual for bloggers.

“Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest,” RSF wrote on its website.

The handbook is intended for such bloggers. It explains the basics of blogging, and offers handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship.