On Imelda's statements defending Martial Law!

Did I just hear Superma’am Imeldific on tv defending her husband, Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law that it was done to save the country from Communism? Wow! I find it hard to believe that 37 years after Martial Law was declared the widow of Marcos still stands by their official yarn, that this was done to save the nation. Nothing could be further than the truth. But the problem with Imelda is, when she lies, she still gets into the headlines! Worse of all, no one tells her that she’s lying through her teeth! But I did see that BBC clip in YouTube of Imelda admitting that she had US$980 million dollars worth in stocks and in cash! Wow!

We know too well that at the height of the EDSA Revolt, then Defense Minister, now Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile publicly admitted that they faked his ambush in order to sow terror on the people, that the communists have gained so much strength that the Philippines was going to be the next “domino” to fall in the clutches of Communism. The bottom line is, Pres. Marcos used the threat of Communism as his pretext to declare Martial Law. But in hindsight, only the stupid ones would insist that Martial Law was declared to save our country from Communism. Far from it!

If at all we must eradicate Communism in this country and re-arrest its leaders like CCP Chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison who was freed during the Cory Administration. He never gave peace a chance and instead made a fool out of Tita Cory who was so naïve, she thought that by releasing political prisoners like Joma, the threat of Communism would end!

Undoubtedly the presence of communists in this country was used by Marcos and his minions to declare Martial Law. So logic dictates that if we didn’t have a communist threat, Marcos couldn’t have found a convenient excuse to call Martial Law and still convince the US that he was doing a patriotic duty. Just in case you forgot, the loss of our press freedom was a direct result of the declaration of Martial Law!

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Talking about press freedom, we’re still in the midst of our 15th celebration on Press Freedom Week. It was a very interesting forum that we attended yesterday at the Fernan Press Center that The FREEMAN and Banat News in partnership with Aboitiz Equity Ventures hosted entitled “Etiquette during Coverages” with Philippine Star News Editor Marichu Villanueva and Senate Beat Reporter Ma. Christina Mendez, moderated by Rico Lucena, columnist of Banat News. It was attended even by The Philippine Star and The FREEMAN President Miguel Belmonte. The forum was one of the major activities of the Press Freedom Week and an opportunity especially for Mass Communications students to dialogue with the media on how they handle major issues.

One point I raised was the issue on “When is an “Off-the-Record” remark really off-the-record?” There are certain media people who believe that there is no such thing as “Off-the-Record” especially when you’re doing an interview as it becomes something like withholding some truths. But the problem we in the media often face is whether we can gain the trust and confidence of our news source. If and when you print or broadcast something that the news source requested as “off-the-record” you end up destroying your credibility as a media person and can no longer be trusted.

In the end, it’s really up to the media person if he can keep an “off-the-record” request truly “off-the-record”. It really depends on the circumstances which differ from issue to issue. What is clear is, no one will ask you to keep things “off-the-record” if you can’t keep it “off-the-record” and then, you may just have lost the trust and confidence of your news source. Today also at the Press Center is Sen. Chiz Escudero. Let’s see what can of information we may be able to extract from him.

Earlier yesterday morning, I spoke before the Cebu Normal University’s Political Science students at the jam-packed Katarungan Hall on the topic of “Federalizing the Philippines” where they dubbed me as the “expert” on this topic. In truth, I’m no “expert” in Federalism. Just call me an advocate of this form of governance. It was very interesting to see the youth studying this concept of governance, which is good for our country.

Incidentally, their professor is Dr. Leodinito Y. Cañete whom I used to meet at the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) office, but he has since moved on to the field of education. I did not only impart what little knowledge I had on Federalism, but I also learned that the students conducted their own surveys within the school on this topic and found out that 56% of 18-year-old male students wanted Federalism for our country, while only 46% of the female students wanted to adopt it.

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