The Kanlaon kuryente

Newsmen have a term for it — nakuryente.

A lot of local journalists were surprised when they heard on television yesterday that several flights to the Caticlan, Kalibo and Dumaguete airports were canceled because of ashes spewed by Kanlaon Volcano on Negros island.

Amazingly, we learned that the foreign wire services also gave the same report without any definitive word from Phivolcs.

Actually, it turned out later that the poor visibility over certain portions of both Central and Western Visayas was due to the intertropical convergence zone, not a Mt. Kanlaon ash eruption.

Actually, until late Tuesday afternoon, Ben Tanatan, head of the Phivolcs in Canlaon City, said the agency had issued only Alert Level I which strictly declares the four-kilometer radius from the volcano off-limits.

The steam and ash clouds from Kanloan reached only 300 to 500 meters above the crater. They drifted northwest and northeast.

In short, the story on the preparations being made by the provincial disaster management team as it anticipated the possible evacuation of some 20,000 residents from barangays around the volcano, may have precipitated the kuryente.

Oh, well, how media can sometimes make mountains out of molehills.

RP most murderous country for journalists

On Monday morning, officers of the Negros Press Club commemorated Press Freedom Week. NPC president Primo Esleyer and yours truly laid at wreath at the marker of the press group at the plaza, fronting the NPC building.

Esleyer, who is on his second term as president of the country’s first press group, immediately deplored the absence of a statue honoring the founder of La Solidaridad in Bacolod. He noted that metropolitan newsmen have put up one for Plaridel (Marcelo H. del Pilar), who only succeeded Lopez Jaena as editor.

Esleyer challenged Negrenses to honor credibly the first Ilonggo national hero with a statue.

But while he paid tribute to our "predecessors" whose sacrifices made press freedom a workable constitutional guarantee, Esleyer also noted that the Philippines has climbed to the top as the most murderous country for journalists.

This was the latest finding of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which found in its analysis last May 3 (the date it was published) that the Philippines is the most murderous country of all. The analysis included Iraq, Columbia, Bangladesh and Russia.

Murder vs crossfire

hile crossfire was the leading cause of death among journalists in Iraq, in the case of the Philippines, most of those slain for their work since 2000 had reported on government and police corruption, drug dealing and the activities of crime syndicates.

"Many were rural radio commentators or reporters who were ambushed in drive-in assassinations. Philippine journalists attribute the violence to a nationwide breakdown in law and order, the wide circulation of illegal arms, and the failure to convict a single person in the murders," the report stated.

It cited the killing of Edgar Damalerio, managing editor of the weekly newspaper Zamboanga Shrine and commentator of radio station dxKP in Pagadian City — "a violent port on the southern island of Mindanao.

The trial of one suspect, a former police officer, started recently.

Damalerio is one of six journalists murdered since 2000 in Mindanao, a region rife with crime and lawlessness.

The CPJ said all of the 58 murders in the five most murderous countries were committed with impunity. Suspected gunmen have been arrested and charged in a handful of cases, but no charges have been brought against those who directed the killings.

CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said, "By failing to investigate and punish the killers, the governments of these five countries embolden all those who seek to silence the Press through violence. The violence becomes self-perpetuating and the free flow of information is cut off."

Cooper added: "The problem is enormous, but not intractable. Governments must recognize what is at stake is not only justice for those murdered by also the collective rights of society to be informed. Journalists cannot do their jobs in a climate of violence and impunity. Governments, particularly those in the five most murderous countries, must devote resources and exercise the will to solve these crimes."

Well, amen to that.

Lomibao to confront complaint

PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow. But he was reported to have already ordered a probe on the complaint for harassment and threat which will be filed against provincial police chief Charles Calima.

Three local journalists, two of them top officers of the defense press corps, claimed that they were deliberately almost sideswiped by the driver-bodyguard of Calima last April 28 right inside the PNP compound at Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Camingawan.

The three complainants are Gilbert Bayoran, president of the Defense Press Club; Annie Calderon, vice president and anchorwoman of RPN TV8 and correspondent of Negros Daily Bulletin; and Bombo Radyo reporter Benedict Entuna.

Bayoran and Calderon had just finished mediating a misunderstanding between Entuna and Calima when, while they were going out of the police headquarters, PO3 Reynaldo Rivera, Calima’s driver, purportedly revved up the Nissan Frontier of Calima and then drove fast, narrowly missing Bayoran, Calderon and the latter’s 12-year-old son, Tan Erwin Sellado.

Members of the Negros Press Club, headed by Esleyer, denounced the incident as a clear indication of harassment and intimidation against prestigious members of the local media.

Esleyer hinted that William Mirano, president of the Negros chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, may serve as counsel of the journalists.

Another thing, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo will be the guest speaker in today’s induction of the officers of the Negros Press Club. Most likely, he will be accompanied by fifth district Rep. Ignacio Arroyo. The lawmaker, one of the best friends of the local media, may be asked by the Negrense journalists to do something about disciplining Calima who has reportedly been in an open feud with some local journalists. None of the three were reportedly involved in the Calima-bashing.

That’s what makes their complaint against the PNP provincial director more serious since he had no reason to threaten or intimidate them.

This bring to mind what the CPJ termed as offenses committed with "impunity."

Scare stories

Sometimes, media is to blame for sensationalizing an incident to the point that people panic.

That was what happened with the complaint of residents of Bocanao, Ilog town, where a child recently died purportedly because of suspected meningococcemia.

The report, unverified yet by laboratory examination, spread around and prompted local residents to shy away from the areas where the victim reportedly came from.

Residents of the barangay complained that even their agricultural products were no longer being bought by outsiders. And they are now shunned by outside residents who fear getting infected with the disease.

Strangely, an ABS-CBN TV crew interviewed the local residents sans the usual precaution of wearing masks to prevent getting infected. That was an indication that the scary story should not have been given so much credence nor should have caused panic.

One noticeable absence, however, was the needed education and information program by the health department that could have defused the situation.

So much misinformation could have been avoided by prompt information about the disease and how one can get infected.

Dr. Jovy Vergara, Bacolod City assistant health officer, clarified that the boy has not been confirmed to have died of meningococcemia yet. The house of the 14-year-old has been quarantined and prophylaxis has been administered to those who came in contact with him.

At least, that reduced panic over the incident.

ADDENDA. The Palarong Pambansa will finally be held in Iloilo City from May 8 to 14. This is exactly 14 years since the city last hosted the event. The Palaro will be under the auspices of the education department... Meanwhile, John Jucaban of Barangay Cuartero, Jaro, posted P30,000 bail for his provisional release following the crash of a driver on spectators of a drag race over the weekend. Jucaban surfaced later and was charged for the incident.