Ban radiomen, a curtailment of free speech?

You already know that the political season is in the air when we see personalities who are not from Cebu come here allegedly to reach out and help downtrodden Cebuanos. A couple of weeks ago, we had San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito who came purportedly to help the squatters being evicted supposedly in preparations for the 12th ASEAN Leader's Summit.

Little did Mayor JV Ejercito realize that those squatters along Sen. Sergio Osmeña Blvd. (formerly MacArthur Blvd) were removed because they were along the path of the underground tunnel that would link the South Reclamation Project to the main road that would connect the Northern and Southern part of Cebu City. Their demolition had nothing to do with sprucing up the City of Cebu for the ASEAN Summit. But even if the demolition is done in preparation for the ASEAN Summit, this is something we wanted our local governments to do a long time ago. It is only now that they found the right excuse and the political will to remove those squatters/vendors. Another fella who suddenly took the cudgels for Cebu is Sen. Ralph Recto who wanted those who took the infamous Nursing Licensure exam from the Visayas and Mindanao to be exempted from the proposal by Malacañang to do a retake for the simple reason that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who conducted a probe on the leakage found that this was confined only in the cities of Manila and Baguio. How I wish elections were not near so we'd really know the true sentiments of these two politicians. Sure, their intentions may be noble, but their timing is too obvious to ignore.

I just hope that the issue facing those nurses who took the licensure exams wouldn't be so politicized now that Sen. Recto has gotten his hands into this mess. Meanwhile, maybe in respect to the separation of powers in the government, Malacañang has decided that it would wait for the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) on whether there should be a retake or not on this issue. The problem however lies upon the very well known fact that Justice in this country moves ever so slowly. Who knows the CA may just decide this case next year, then everyone loses!

In the meantime, I would like to know whether the second batch of Nursing graduates who are slated to take the exams come December would be able to take the Nursing exams soonest regardless whether the CA makes a decision on this issue or not. Those who took that controversial Nursing exams were in the first batch of Nursing graduates while those in the second batch are now busy studying and praying that there will be no leakage in their batch. So we'd like to know whether or not the second batch of examinees would also be derailed because of the controversial first batch.

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In another controversy, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas-Cebu Chapter (KBP) has been tasked by Atty. Alfonso dela Cerna to ban from going "on the air" convicted radio commentator Ely Carungay who had been convicted of libel four times. The problem that the KBP faces is that, the conviction of Carungay is not yet "final and executory". Indeed, this is a problem that everyone faces, not just those in the media. Wasn't Superma'am Imelda Marcos convicted of one of the crimes she allegedly committed? Yet she was able to run for public office despite this conviction.

Another fellow asking to ban radio commentators is Mr. Bert Emphasis who figured in the public arrest of Reynante "Rey" Cortez and Lito "Bingbong" Solon in a sting operation that was hatched by Mr. Emphasis. However, the two radio commentators still fall under that legal dictum wherein they are considered "innocent until proven guilty" yet Mr. Emphasis has already asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to ban the two radiomen.

I wonder if the NTC would ban these two sans any conviction by the courts of law. No doubt Mr. Emphasis is showing off his power. Someone ought to remind him that we are still a country of laws and not of men. If you ask me, banning these radiomen is still a curtailment of their right to the freedom of speech. When one is drunk with power, chances are, he thinks he can do almost anything, even ban people from their legal rights. Meanwhile, it is enough for us to know that the KBP has a lot of problems on its hands on what to do with erring radio commentators and what punishment or penalties should be slapped among its members. But like what we've been harping all along, we'd like to know who handles media outlets who do not belong to the KBP. Should it fall under the NTC? If so, we would like to know what the NTC can do about this problem.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit's columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com