Just days before the world marked the Press Freedom Day on May 3, Philippine state forces ramped up their clampdown on journalists, further eroding what little is left of the media's liberty to do their jobs.
On May 2, John Heredia, a municipal administrator and former president of National Union of Journalists in the Philippines-Capiz, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Lawaan, Roxas City, Capiz. Heredia, who was brought to Capiz Doctors Hospital, arrived dead on arrival, according to his wife, lawyer Cris Heredia.
On the same day, in Daraga, Albay, around 40 members of Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group raided the house of Justine Mesias, senior editor of CaSSiPi Online, a student publication of the Bicol University. Mesias, who is also the spokesperson of Youth Act Now Against Tyranny-Bicol, evaded arrest due to his absence during the raid where explosives and a caliber .45 pistol were allegedly found. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Before these incidents, on Labor Day, 12 members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) Zambales, including a correspondent of The Manila Collegian, the official student publication of the UP Manila, were also arrested at a checkpoint in Del Pilar village in Castillejos, Zambales for allegedly flouting health protocols. The group, however, has secured a release order from the court, and was freed on the night of May 3.
With these series of arrests and killings, LFS-Zambales has been one of the many groups that condemned these recent attacks against journalists. “[Ang mga atake ay] patunay na ang mga hanay ng kapulisan ang tunay na berdugo, tuta ng pasistang si Duterte at nambubusal ng boses sa mga indibidwal na lumalaban para sa pambansang demokrasya,” read part of their statement, May 1.
As journalists remain targets of intensifying state harassment and assault, the Philippines has ranked 138th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), slipping two notches lower than the previous year.
The RSF cited the judicial harassment campaign against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, and the shutting down of the country’s biggest television network, ABS-CBN, last year. The report also noted how the government mobilized trolls to launch cyber-attacks against independent news outfits and hamper their operations. In 2020, too, four journalists, who were critical of local politicians, were summarily executed.
Aside from arbitrarily arresting and kiling media workers, the government, through the judicial process, also takes part in delaying the disposition of cases of unlawfully arrested journalists. For instance, the court hearing of Frenchie Mae Cumpio, the arrested executive director of Eastern Vista, resumed only on May 3, coinciding with the commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day.
After her arrest on February 7, 2020, Altermidya, in its statement on April 21, hoped that their journalist’s case would not drag any longer than it already has, as Cumpio has been detained for more than a year now for trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Cumpio is one of the five activists arrested from Tacloban City, collectively known as the Tacloban 5, who were nabbed during simultaneous raids in 2020.
“Each day that our colleague spends in jail is a day deprived of justice. Her continued detention is an assault to press freedom and a disservice to the community [deprived] of information that the independent media in Eastern Visayas provides,” the network said in its statement.
While the state persecution of journalists certainly sends a chilling effect on press freedom, this also stiffens every journalist’s resolve to continue delivering information to the public, exposing powerbrokers, and fighting for justice for their colleagues.
“United, journalists and the freedom-loving public must sing a song of unity, a ballad of fearless reporting and truth-telling. We must counter the raucous cacophony that is the Duterte administration and rewrite our nation’s hymn for freedom and democratic rights,” said Altermidya. ●
