Mediamen split on arming proposal

The Cabinet decision to allow the country’s journalists to be armed as a move to protect them from assassins generated controversy among members of the Negros Press Club and other media organizations.

That proposal ensued post the assassination of broadcaster Fernando Batul in Puerto Princesa City Monday. He was the 79th journalist killed since 1986 when the People Power revolt ousted the late President Marcos from power and restored press freedom in the country.

Batul was gunned down by a still unidentified assailant aboard a motorcycle who killed him with 12 gunshot wounds in different parts of his body.

Amado Villacarlos, president of the Negros Press Club, said arming journalists is not the answer to the present problem.

"Not all mediamen in Negros and Bacolod are under threat," he pointed out.

Instead, he suggested that his colleagues report immediately to both the NPC and any police agency if and when they receive death threats.

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, a former president of the NPC, stressed that the local police is willing to provide security to any journalist in Bacolod if he or she is threatened — most especially if this threat is work-related.

ABS-CBN’s Yasmin Durmido said arming a journalist does not make him safer.

She added: "It does not have any assurance that will protect us from any form of violence."

Instead, the broadcaster recommends that the government seriously look into the cases of slain journalists being killed in line with their work.

In the case of so-called "hao-siao" journalists described by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Villacarlos said the former presidents of the Negros Press Club and the NPC board have already delisted several (almost one-half) of the membership after a marathon session last week.

Several were downgraded to associate members. Several members of the so-called "tamburong" brigade, as pseudo-journalists are called, have been stripped of their membership.

Another female reporter, Carla Canet of the Negros Daily Bulletin, said she is not in favor of the Malacañang proposal.

"The pen is mightier than the gun. Arming journalists gives rise to opportunities to commit possible criminal acts," she added.

But Levi Trio of Aksyon Radyo supports the proposal, pointing out that "arming journalists will protect us from possible threats related to our job."

Another broadcaster, Ricky Filoteo of RMN, said he welcomes the idea as long as the licensed firearms will be given for free. But he added that a journalist need not fear if he is doing the right thing.

Two others — Rex Cantong of Aksyon Radyo and Ritzy Malo-oy of the Negros Daily Bulletin — objected to the proposal, pointing out the media’s primary goal is to inform, educate and entertain the public.

Echoing Yasmin Pascual-Durmido, he said, "The pen, tape recorder and notebooks are our weapons."

"We do not need arms. Mediamen should be prepared at all times, though," Cantong added.

Malo-oy, on the other hand, said if one follows the journalist’s code of ethics, a mediaman should not fear possible harm. Besides, Malo-oy added, "Having a weapon does not assure one of safety."

I, for one, shun guns. I must admit, though, that early in my career as a journalist, while still in the police beat, I developed a fetish for handguns. I realized the danger one night when two journalists, having received MRs for their handguns from the late NBI director Jose Lucban, wanted to practice target shooting from the window of the National Press Club bar.

The late Ernesto Granada, then Manila Chronicle columnist, asked the two not to push through with the idea since they could hit passers-by along Aduana street. They relented. But one of them remained rooted at the window. Then, he sent me a signal that he wanted me to approach him. He still was holding his cocked revolver.

"How do you uncock this?" he sheepishly asked me.

From then, on, I stashed away my Walter PPK 7.65mm.

Victims of ‘pirates’ surface

Several more victims of the "seajackers" apprehended by Negrense fishing crewmembers off the coast of Isla de Higantes of Iloilo have surfaced and identified the five arrested and placed in the custody of the Cadiz City police.

The Cadiz City police and the Maritime Command also issued an appeal to all victims of the pirates’ extortion to check if the five were among those who had victimized them.

Overpowered by the crew of F/B Cadiz City were Allan Sun, Douglas Jerafta, Ronaldo Gabriel, Milo Mercader, and 18-year-old Diosdado Ado, all from Masbate.

Cadiz City crewmen also recovered from them an M-16 Armalite rifle, a machine pistol and four Armalite magazines.

The owner of F/B Cadiz City, said Cadiz City police chief Norberto Boston, is preparing piracy raps against the five, and their seven companions who managed to flee the fishing vessel.

Another fishing boat operator, Roy Vijandre, president of the Commercial Fishing Boat Operators, is also filing charges against the five. The quintet also allegedly extorted money from him. Vijandre is the owner of F/B Laura, which had alerted F/B Cadiz City about the pirates.

Negros Occidental police director Charles Calima said they are still verifying reports that policemen were among the pirates engaged in extortion in the Visayan Sea.

He said the NOPO would coordinate with the Masbate police to determine if local policemen are involved in the pirates’ activities.

Maritime Group chief Cornelio Salinas said pirates have been boarding commercial fishing boats in the Visayan Sea or Tañon Strait, threatening owners that their boats would be towed away unless they deposit P100,000 to P500,000 in their account.

If they fail to comply with the demand, the boat is towed to a town in Masbate and seized and they are charged for illegal fishing.

DAR Region VI steps into the picture

It took Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon to step into the conflicts in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to make regional director Alexis Arsenal assume the task "to appease the complaining landowners."

Marañon earlier had asked for an audit of the CARP implementation, especially the number of areas distributed to the tillers and the payment of the landlords’ properties by the Land Bank of the Philippines.

That audit, however, could expand. Right now, the big question is the outstanding unpaid amortizations of Landbank and the staggering drop in the payment of land taxes by agrarian reform beneficiaries which local government units have complained about.

Arsenal’s decision to step into Negros Occidental was the unresolved tension in Hacienda Cambuktot of Farley and Dr. Rudith Gustilo in La Castellana town. There, a leader of the Task Force Mapalad, Mario Domingo, was killed last week. While TFM claimed the killers were goons hired by Gustilo, those identified were said to be competing claimants.

The Gustilos pointed out that there was a standing memorandum of understanding among them and the TFM whereby the latter agreed to maintain peaceful and economic productivity and co-existence in the hacienda.

But last Feb. 1, provincial DAR officer Rely Banares, together with PARO 1 Manuel Velasco and MARO Nelda Salmorin, reportedly granted additional hectares to TFM members in violation of the MOU.

The Gustilo couple earlier had granted to TFM 17 hectares of the hacienda. The rest were reserved for their hacienda workers.

Anyway, Arsenal pointed out that the "imported ARBs" could still be challenged by the simple expedience of the landowner supporting his/her claim through the payslip or payroll from the hacienda or the Department of Labor and Employment.

On Tuesday, Arsenal, the Gustilos, TFM and Calima will meet again to discuss a peaceful solution to the conflict in Hacienda Cambuktot.

The Gustilos stressed that they are not opposed to CARP, only that their other farmworkers who were excluded should be made beneficiaries, and those not qualified should be excluded.

Legacy of Dr. Pablo Torre

On Monday, a big group of Bacolod mediamen went to the Riverside Medical Center where we were told in a press briefing about their state of-the-art diagnostic facilities and other impressive improvements, including the pneumatic tube which makes it easier and more accurate for the pharmacy to dispense medicines.

One of those who attended it was Primo Esleyer, columnist of the Visayan Daily STAR and immediate former president of the Negros Press Club. His wife, the late Dr. Fe Esleyer, a dentist, often visited Dr. Pablo Torre, the founder and head of the hospital.

My late wife, Dr. Lourdes L. Espina, was among the original stockholders. It is now my daughter, Dr. May Espina-Rife, who holds her stocks. So I went there as a kibitzer, although part of what my wife left behind is still in my name.

All the Torre family members were there… although Pablito is now in the US. Yes, he is also a physician. The chairman of the board is Dr. Hector Torre. The president is Joaquin, a former Bacolod councilor.

The most impressive were advances in emergency care where approaches have been standardized.

Anyway, I’m not competent to discuss the details of hospital care. But no doubt the improvements are impressive and the pieces of equipment brought into the hospital are worth millions of pesos.

Definitely, Riverside is a lasting legacy of one of the most unforgettable physicians ever to have graced the local scene. I remember Pabling, as we used to call him, as the kindhearted physician who often offered his services free to indigent patients and friends.

A surgeon, he often complained to me about the abhorred victims of homemade guns since he had to look for the pellets all over the body of a wounded patient.

I remember him to be a smiling paternalistic figure who refused offers to pay for his services.