Celebrating Press Freedom here in Cebu

This well, we are celebrating Cebu’s 18th Press Freedom Week from Sept. 16-22 and since we recently had a media recollection with Arch. Jose Palma last Sept. 7, I thought it would be fitting to continue this new dialogue with Cebu  Media and the Cebu Archdiocese. After all, aside from the current issue on the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, there are still many issues that we have not yet covered like same sex marriage, divorce and many more.

So tonight we have with us, Msgr. Dennis Villarojo, Moderator of the Team Ministry of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish (Capitol Parish) and tonight we will focus on The Church and the Media. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. Also we have replays on MyTV channel 28 Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Once more this week, the Cebu media celebrates its 18th Cebu Press Freedom Week, a celebration that is done annually in Cebu (I heard that it is catching on in other places in the Visayas) but not with our media counterparts in Metro Manila and I really don’t know why they don’t celebrate Press Freedom, especially that on Sept. 21, 1972, it was the media outlets that were shutdown when Martial Law was declared by then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos who transformed his legitimate Presidency into a dictatorship.

Eventually, all the media outlets that were shutdown reopened and, hellooow… they were now owned by Marcos cronies. Being owned by people who owe the Marcos Dictatorship… the result were doctored new reports or propaganda and the Filipino people no longer knew whether we were told the truth or half truths or worse… lies. Yes, this was the media in the Philippines from 1972 up to 1986. Alas, the majority of the Filipino people today know nothing about this because most of them were not yet born in those dark days when Press Freedom was taken away from the media.

But just before the EDSA revolt… there was a new phenomenon in the Philippine Press… the emergence of what was then called the “Mosquito Press” where magazines like Mr. & Ms were printed daily although they looked like tabloids. My mentor the late Sir Max Soliven wrote in that paper and eventually founded the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Then EDSA came and the world was turned upside down.

Things have since changed with the entry of the Internet Highway where the social networking sites are now read by many people. Bloggers are now part of this world… and with the entry of the smart phone, people can now communicate instantly. While we still have news on TV or in print media, the truth can no longer be hidden… as bloggers are just a Wi-Fi away. If Cebu media celebrates Press Freedom, it is because we know how precious is our freedom of speech and it should never be curtailed by anyone or by law.

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In light of the accident that snuffed the lives of Kyle Julian Gullas Weckman and his Korean classmate in a waterfalls in Morong, Bataan, the Department of Education (DepED) is now looking at a total ban of out-of-town non-educational field trips by schools. Call this a knee-jerk reaction to this accident that could have been avoided had the International School (IS) issued some kind of a checklist before they went into that field trip.

I was at the wake of Kyle Weckman at the Crystal Palace last Friday and it was heart rending to see many IS students, classmates of the victims struggling to cope with this disaster. I was with former GSIS Chairman Winston Garcia who apparently told me that his only son was also in that excursion, but fortunately, he didn’t jump into the river, with the others. 

I asked Winston… didn’t IS know that Morong is heavily infested with New People’s Army (NPA) regulars? It was only then that Winston realized and remembered how I’ve been writing about the infamous Morong 43, those so-called Health Workers who were in truth, NPAs teaching their friends on how to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). Three of these 43 arrested admitted to be NPAs. But the Aquino regime freed all of them on Dec.10, 2010. So chances are, these people are still in Morong!

Call it in hindsight, but if anyone cared to call me whether their children should be allowed to go to Morong… I would flatly say “No!” It was then that Jiji Gullas told me that when he went there, there were more soldiers than civilians. While this may have been an accident, it could have been worse if anyone from the NPA intelligence knew that scions of the Cebuano rich were in the mountain fastness of Morong, which many parts are controlled by the NPA. It could have ended differently. If at all, the DepED should not stop those school excursions, rather before they are allowed any outdoor activities, due diligence should be done by the school. That didn’t happen here.

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