Pimentel to media: Watch anti-terror bill

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called on the media yesterday to keep close tabs on the anti-terrorism bill, which he fears could become a tool for muzzling the press.

"We need legislation to combat the sophisticated methods that terrorists employ to harm the innocent," Pimentel said in his keynote speech during the induction of the incoming members of the board of trustees of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) at a local hotel here. "But everyone, especially the members of the media, are called upon to help see to it that the law on terrorism that comes out of Congress must not infringe upon our basic freedoms in the name of the fight against terrorism."

"It is important for the PPI and for all other mass media organizations and concerned citizen’s groups to monitor the shape and form that this legislation will take," Pimentel said.

"Your views are especially welcome on the provisions on arrests without warrants, surreptitious wire tapping, scrutinizing your e-mails and other private communications and probably even your bank accounts by government agents," he said.

Pimentel also warned that the difficulties the US press has been experiencing in publishing what the US government had at various times considered to be sensitive information is already "pressing on our shores." He cited the news blackout over the military operation against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu a year ago.

"It would do the PPI well to put their collective heads together and map out suggestions on how the press will handle matters involving issues on terrorism under present laws and the rights of our people under the projected anti-terrorism legislation," Pimentel said.

Earlier, Amado "Jake" Macasaet, PPI chairman and president, warned that "media and state can never mix, lest this spell the end of the latter as a democratic institution."

"Media and the state are classical adversaries," Macasaet said. "They should never be friends. If media and the state should ever come to terms, we are finished."

Following are the new officers and members of the PPI Board of Trustees who were inducted into office: Amado Macasaet, chairman and president, publisher of Malaya; Isagani Yambot, vice president, publisher, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Ronaldo Romero, treasurer, editor-publisher, Business World; Allan Mediante, trustee for Mindanao, assistant vice president, Mindanao Gold Star Daily; Quirino Alban, trustee for Luzon, editor-publisher, Makiling Journal; Michelle So, trustee for Visayas, executive editor, Sun Star Cebu; and trustees Augusto Villanueva, editor-in-chief, Journal Group; Rogelio Salazar, chief executive officer, Manila Standard; Antonio Katigbak, managing erditor, The STAR; and Juan Mercado, director of the Press Foundation for Asia.

Also at the induction were Jose Pavia, executive director, editor-publisher, Mabuhay, and Gary Mariano, Philippine Press Council chairman and an assistant professor at De La Salle University-Greenhills.

Besides inducting the new PPI board into office, Pimentel also inducted the charter officers of the Cagayan de Oro Communicators Association, an aggrupation of writers in government and the private sector.

Also attending the occasion were Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno, former Cagayan de Oro City mayor Pablo Magtajas, Cagayan de Oro Press Club president Uriel Quilinguing and KBP-Cagayan de Oro chapter chairman Jonas Bustamante. — Mike Baños