Cebu media celebrates Press Freedom Week

Last Sunday, the Cebu media kicked off its 19th Press Freedom Week celebration with a parade walk from Fuente Osmeña all the way to the San Carlos Seminario Gym in Mabolo. I didn’t walk, but took my motorcycle so I could survey the parade from front to end and take photos for my Facebook. Yes, this is the Cebu Media’s way of celebrating Press Freedom because September was the month that then President Ferdinand E. Marcos transformed himself from a President of the Philippine Republic into the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship that lasted all 14 years.

Honestly until now, I really don’t know why the national media do not have a similar celebration as this is only happening in Cebu. It was truly a heartwarming experience seeing media workers from The Freeman Daily, SunStar Daily and Cebu Daily news in their various colors lining up the streets of Cebu City to celebrate Freedom of Speech. Only in Cebu will you see ABS-CBN’s “Kapamilya” and GMA-7’s “Kapuso” enjoying a fun-filled Sunday with their fellow radio broadcasters from TV-5 and all AM and FM Stations, including a new group from the Social media networking groups.

This entire week will have a lot of media related activities. Today is the Globe Cebu Media Excellence Awards held at the Marriott Hotel. This award is giving due recognition and tribute to print, broadcast and digital media practitioners who have excelled in their respective fields of endeavor.

Yes, I’m a proud member of the Cebu media because while we belong to competing media outlets…yet we are also part and parcel of the media industry, and are always friends. Since 1986, the Cebu media has grown exponentially and I saw that last Sunday during the Freedom walk which had all the trappings of a Sinulog celebration complete with dancers and a drum and bugle corps. This was the brainchild of SunStar Daily editor Pacheco Seares. 

Incidentally, the Cebu media is one in asking PresidentBenigno “PNoy” Aquino III to fast track the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, something that we in the media believe could have prevented a Janet Lim Napoles or corruption with our government officials because this law would have allowed the media to look into the different disbursements in a Congressman’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel. So expect a concerted effort coming from the Cebu media to ask the President and his allies in Congress to get that FOI Bill turned into law.

While it may have been fun to celebrate Press Freedom Week, a few hours earlier at the wee hours of dawn, a former radio broadcaster Jesus “Jesse” Tabanao, 35 years old who had joined as an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) in Central Visayas was shot in the back by a still unidentified killer on Escario St. He was the spokesperson of the PDEA-7. He left a seven-year-old boy and a pregnant wife who is expecting this month. He was killed on the spot… felled by 9mm bullets.

Once again, unknown assailants have felled another media man and we can only surmise that this killing was work related. Thanks to a renewed effort by the PDEA-7 there had been a lot of arrests made in Cebu against drug pushers in the last two months and for sure, it is hurting those who are in this illicit drug trade. But they made a mistake in killing Jesse Tabanao for the Cebu media would never stop asking the police to find who were his assailants. Call it a black mark on Cebu’s 19th Press Freedom Celebration. But the show must go on!

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Remember the so-called “Morong 43,” that group of 26 women and 17 men who were captured by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Feb. 6, 2010 in the hills of Morong who posed as health workers, but as military intelligence showed, they were really members of the New People’s Army (NPA)? The police charged this group with illegal possession of firearms and explosives as military intel showed that they were teaching their comrades how to make improvised explosive devices (IED).

If you’ve already forgotten it… on Dec. 10, 2010, President Aquino ordered the Justice Department to drop charges against the Morong 43 detainees because of mistreatment in military custody and because the charges were based supposedly on illegally obtained evidence. Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Elaine Pearson praised President Aquino for releasing the Morong 43 suspects. They released NPA members!

Well, the Philippine STAR’s The Nation section last Sunday came up with a report that the couple Ronald Muñez  Ebon “Ka Eugenio” and his partner Emily Marquez “Ka Winnie” surrendered to the 76th Infantry Brigade in Occidental Mindoro admitting that they were sick and tired of the rebel movement. Yes, they also admitted that they belonged to the Morong 43. Proof of how mistaken President Aquino was in releasing those enemies of the State. Like mother like son, don’t forget Tita Cory also released Joma Sison.

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