THE Department of Tourism (DOT) secretary’s valiant effort to contain the reputational damage caused by the Maguindanao massacre unfortunately smacks of both naiveté and insensitivity. At a tourism industry event early this week, Secretary Ace Durano—most likely driven by the need to stop travel agents abroad from canceling their scheduled tours to our country—bravely dismissed the massacre as “an isolated incident.”

It was the wrongest possible description of that savage, barbaric and gruesome outrage which has turned out to be a landmark in political killings and the worst case of the murder of journalists in history.  It has earned for the Philippines the top prize as the most dangerous place for media people. At least 27 press people were killed in one day in that horrible place. 

Women were raped and their private parts shot up. Lawyers were also treated with disrespect and their bodies mutilated.

For starters, the Tourism secretary’s observation is anything but factual.

For years, the international media community, human rights groups, as well as the United Nations and the US State Department, have been calling on the Arroyo government to stop the rising incidence of violence against members of the press in a country that is supposed to be some kind of good example of a democratic dispensation which has the freest media in Asia.

Reporters San Frontieres has been tallying the number of Filipino mediamen killed and concluded that the current administration already broke the previous record set by the Marcos regime.

The Maguindanao massacre catapulted the country to the status of the world’s most hostile environment for the media, beating even war-torn areas like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The irony of it all is that the Maguindanao massacre happened during peacetime, or at least a period when no battles are being fought between government forces and Muslim or communist rebels in that region, just as the Philippines is preparing for democratic elections.

To call the massacre an isolated and unique incident betrays either ignorance, which is inexcusable for an official whose primary mandate requires a vast knowledge of the country he is promoting, or a willingness to trifle with the truth.  The last mentioned is rather disappointing for us who have observed Mr. Durano to be one of the more high-minded Cabinet members.

What makes the DOT chief’s statement more remarkable for its falsity  is that he seems to have forgotten that the rule of political warlords, exercising control like potentates over Philippine provinces, has been a despicable characteristic of our society since the birth of our Republic.  Has he forgotten the history of Cebu and the Duranos’ memorable role in that history?

The Duranos are very influential in Cebu politics, particularly in their hometown of Danao—perhaps in the same way that the Ampatuans are regarded in Maguindanao.

Danao earned its notoriety for the decades-old hold of the Durano family on that locality’s political fortunes—and by extension, of that clan’s role in delivering the votes for whoever was in Malacañang.

The clan patriarch was widely believed to have ruled Danao in the tradition of the local warlord, whose power was exercised through the so-called 3G—which stands for guns, goons and gold.

Some even alleged that in the particular case of Danao—which has become famous worldwide for its gunsmithing industry—political power literally flowed from the barrel of the gun. And no thanks to that point in Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book.

For the DOT chief to call the Maguindanao mass-murder incident an aberration, something rare in Philippine politics, betrays a serious lapse in historical knowledge.

The DOT press corps, which should awaken from the lull of junkets dispensed by the agency, would do the department chief a lot of good by reminding him of these tidbits of history.

We believe the Tourism secretary owes our profession—which has lost 27 practitioners who were just doing their job—an apology.



The wisdom of silence

We did not join those of our journalist colleagues who immediately accused the Arroyo administration of coddling the Ampatuans, of  saying it was incapable of arresting the suspects.

Until Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, PNP chief Jesus Verzosa and AFP‘s Gen. Rodrigo Maclang spoke at the midday press conference on Thursday, no one knew that they had taken control without provoking a gunbattle with the Ampatuans’ private army. This includes men imbedded in the police set-up of Maguindanao and its towns and AFP trained militias—Cafgus and CDOs. There would have been a shooting war between these, on one side, and the government military and police loyal to the central government, on the other side.

The way Sec. Puno and chief Verzosa, with the help of the AFP, handled it, they managed to demobilize and disarm the militias, transfer the police officers to other assignments, suspend all the sitting officials of the province and the towns, and take over the capitol without a shot being fired.

Secretary Puno, Sec. Jesus Dureza and the others had to be discreet.  For the situation was critical and explosive.  They deserve commendation.

Former Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro is also deserving of praise for expelling the Ampatuans from the Lakas-Kampi CMD and showing his solidarity with Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, whom he and Mr. Edu Manzano visited on Wednesday.