the Provincial Press Bureau of Misamis Oriental pose for a souvenir photo
with Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her visit this week
By PJTremedal
Cagayan de Oro City – Her Excellency President of the Republic, Ms. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be visiting the newly mounted and unveiled Press Freedom Monument erected to denounce media killings and pays tribute to the 104 slain Filipino journalists from 1986-2009.
As fallen heroes of the Filipino masses, the true voice of the people’s cry of freedom, the said monument was conceptualized by media people of Cagayan de Oro and was erected with the help and support of the local government of Misamis Oriental, specifically with the support from Governor Oscar Moreno who amidst media slaps and intrigues in its mounting at the Cagayan’s De Lara Park (formerly Macarthur’s Park), the monument as the governor’s so to speak is “a product of true leadership”.
President Arroyo who will be joined by media people from the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) and other visiting media ,the Cagayan de Oro Press Photographers Associations, the Provincial and City Government officials led by the governor himself, and other government and non-government stakeholders will arrived after her stint in Lugait and Initao municipalities to see for herself the Press Freedom Monument.
The monument was conceptualized artistically by the world renown Filipino Artists, Ed Castrillo who once said that the movement of his art peace symbolizes the integrity, unity, and heroism of every Filipino journalists.
“It is an art of freedom and for freedom” Castrillo said.
If journalists are persecuted, imprisoned or killed, society as a whole is the victim, say media and democracy advocates.
The serial killings of journalists, including those street demonstrators throughout the country nowadays posed a big threat to Philippine’s Freedom of Expression. The government, as I see it, appears to be inutile, if not disinterested at all, in solving these killings of the journalists, considered members of
Though this media killings, threats of violence and intimidation, nor any other form of illegal interference cannot stop us from our moral and social duty, this still remains the greatest threa to press freedom in the country.
Since our country gained independence in 1986, some 104 journalists were killed in the line of duty, including some 17 other journalists who were also killed for reasons not connected to their work.
The Philippine special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists, titled "Under Oath, Under Threat", underscored the weaknesses of the government's Witness Protection Program that ultimately leaves witnesses to journalists’ murders vulnerable to retaliation or bribery.
The
With the 104 unsolved killings of Filipino journalists from 1986-2009, the media EJK’s (extra judicial killings) took place in a "stable, peacetime democracy".
Jose Torres Jr, (former) National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chairman, said it is lamentable that the government has yet to concretely show it is serious in stopping the attacks against journalists.
"We hope the government will really show it is serious in solving these cases by targeting the masterminds. We have a culture of impunity now because the killers and masterminds are not being made responsible for these attacks. Just one conviction of a mastermind will change that. Right now, they are just keeping their silence behind the scenes, probably hunting down the next victim”.
With the
As the Nationalist Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) had always campaign for, “STOP KILLING JOURNALISTS” and other media practitioners and advocates would like to say, no more killings please… in 2010 upwards.
PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
CALL OR TEXT ME : 0929-589-6390
OR E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.com
visit my website: www.pag-enews.tk
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