Campus journalists condemn impunity inside and outside schools

Two days before the second year commemoration of the Ampatuan Massacre was the 32nd birthday of Beng Hernandez, then Features Editor of Atenews, Vice President for Mindanao of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and the Deputy Secretary-general of human rights group Karapatan. Beng was only 22 when she was mercilessly killed by military personnel in a farmer’s shanty in Arakan, North Cotabato last April 5, 2002. Until now, there is still no justice for Beng despite UN’s resolution holding the Philippine government responsible.

The coincidental proximity of the commemoration of the two events is an opportune occasion for us, campus journalists, to stage our strongest condemnation of the phenomena of impunity in our midst.

When Beng was murdered, our colleagues in the campus press cried for justice. Only few listened. With the one-time liquidation of 58 civilians, of whom 32 were media workers, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao in 2009, a greater number of people cried for justice. And we get a greater chance of being heard. So we in the campus press join in shouting for justice for the 58 victims of the gruesome massacre in the hope of maximizing the venue for mainstreaming the cases of those hundred others who were also killed, unfortunately just not in a controversial massacre. One case is Beng’s.

It was a good leap when many concerned people agreed to declare November 23 as International Day of No Impunity. Those who died without having claimed justice have at last a day each year to be remembered not as mere “souls” (because we do that in November 1 and 2) but as collateral damages of a complex social entropy highlighted by the state’s irresponsibility.

We in CEGP do not see impunity as characterized only by killings. Impunity means not holding a perpetrator of injustice accountable. We consider the more than 300 unresolved cases of campus press freedom violations nationwide as impunity. We consider withholding of student publication’s funds as impunity, censorship as impunity, threats and harassments as impunity. We consider efforts to forcefully close student publications and expulsion of campus journalists as impunity. The number of injustices is rising and no one has yet faced the bars for all these repressive actions.

How can we trust our government to protect journalists like Beng and those killed in Maguindanao when it could not even eliminate the growing list of press freedom violations inside school campuses? While it has not protected workers of truth from threats of death, it has not also delivered justice to those killed. What a very disappointing government we have.

Today, one of the believed master architects of the perpetuation of impunity is now under arrest. In last year’s inaugural speech of PNoy, he said : “There shall be no reconciliation without justice!” The reconciliation part might be unlikely to happen, but please give chance to justice.###

For reference:

Paul Randy P. Gumanao

CEGP Vice President for Mindanao

Zooming-in on the European Union

I have long wanted to visit European countries. I am just envious how they have a culture of intellectual exchanges, how their streets are cleaner than the streets of Davao or Manila, how they have a justice system that is more humane, how they are better compared to my home country. I am always amazed with the fact that a number of Euro countries are welfare states. This amazement is besides my appreciation of how they value history and culture, nature and the sciences. And these made them move forward, these made them developed and capable of extending aids to poor and exploited countries like the Philippines.

My chance to visit Europe was made possible without necessarily leaving Philippines. Last October 27-28 this year, I was one of the delegates to the Campus Journalism Seminar-Workshop held at the University of the Philippines-Diliman and hosted by the European Union Delegation to the Philippines.

One could not get rid of question like: why did the EU tap campus journalists? Why did the EU teach us about foreign affairs reporting? What does the EU want from us?

The answers were explicitly given during the workshop. Officers from the EU said that they are poorly covered by the Philippine media, whose lenses are more zoomed in on the United State’s affairs with the country. In short, EU wanted to invite journalists to tell them “hey, there’s EU who also does a lot of help for your country.” And they wanted to start with us, campus journalists.

Most of the participants of the seminar-workshop were kindred from the 80-year old, progressive and patriotic College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). As the guild’s vice president for Mindanao, I nodded with affirmation to my colleagues who raised questions on the real score behind the initiatives of the EU in the Philippines and the EU’s trade agenda with our country, especially that DTI Director Perlada presented to us the projected increase in the export of services (labor export) in the next couple of trading years with the EU.

However, I did the same nodding, too, when Ms. Thelma Gecolea, the Public Information Officer of the EU Delegation to the Philippines, answered the questions raised. She said in Filipino, “Nalulungkot ako na marinig na may ilan sa inyo na nag-iisip na kaya kayo inimbita ay para magpopularize ng EU. Hindi naman po iyon ang nais ng EU. Nasa sa inyo na yan kung gusto ninyo kaming isulat o i-feature. Ang sa amin lang ay ipinapaalam namin sa inyo na may European Union at kung ano ang European Union.”

Ms. Thelma was right! It is up to us if we write about EU or not. After all, it is the CEGP’s motto that says “To write is already to choose.”

But, I believe we should write about EU. Not in the sense of popularizing EU, of course. As student journalists and as Filipinos, we should write about the basic truths why EU and all other first-world aid providers are here in our country, in the first place. These foreign aid providers say they long to help our country. We should say, we will help our own country more!

Yes, the EU has very poor media coverage here in our country. If the mainstream media cannot give a focus on EU, the campus press will! We will keep on zooming in on EU until the picture becomes larger and clearer, until the picture is no longer EU but a very rich Philippines, with a very poor distribution of wealth.

I am thankful to the EU for saying, “Hey, we are here! We exist!” I could say, “Yes, many thanks! You’re greatest aid to us is giving us this giant mirror showing the reflections of our worsening social order as a nation, showing how you have filled in what should have been filled by our own state government.”

I hope that mirror would serve us for good. I hope that mirror would move our leaders to action. And if our leaders would choose to remain idle, we, the student journalists, would choose to write and choose to lead.

“To write is already to choose.”