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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the 40th Asean
Ministerial Meeting (AMM) scheduled in Manila in late July. Foreign
Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo will chair the annual Asean
ministerial meeting.
An official document obtained by
this columnist from sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs
says Rice will be here on August 1. She will lead a 10-man US
delegation in the post-ministerial conference (PMC), where she will
discuss various issues related to US-Asean relations with the
foreign ministers of the 10-nation regional grouping.
Aside from Rice, the foreign
ministers of Asean dialogue partners—Australia, New Zealand, the
European Union, Russia and Canada—will also attend separate PMCs
with the Asean foreign ministers.
Rice also attended the 39th Asean
Ministerial Meeting held in Kuala Lumpur last year.
According to a high-ranking DFA
official, preparations are now being finalized for the official
schedule of Rice in Manila. It would include a courtesy call on
President Macapagal-Arroyo and a bilateral meeting with Romulo.
The official said because of her
very hectic schedule, Rice is expected to stay only overnight in
Manila or she may even immediately depart after the call on Malacañang.
The US Secretary of State travels around the world on a special
wide-bodied aircraft.
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon will have a
working dinner with the Asean foreign ministers on July 30, after
the plenary session of the AMM and after the AMM retreat. This will
be the first visit to Manila of the former South Korean foreign
minister since he assumed the top UN post on January 1.
All meetings related to the AMM
and the PMC will be held at the Philippine International Convention
Center (PICC), which is expected to be off-limits to the general
public during the AMM, which officially starts on July 26 and ends
on August 2.
Access to information
The speech of Chief Justice
Reynato S. Puno at the recent induction of the officers of
Capampangan in Media Inc. should be taken by journalists as a
challenge for national survival. Puno wisely observed that the
freedom of speech and of the press, as well as other freedoms
enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are preferred rights and should be
given a higher priority or “occupying a higher rung in the
hierarchy of constitutional values” than other rights, such as
property rights or state rights.
Puno observed that during crises
or states of emergencies, restrictions and diminution, if not
outright denial of these rights, are often practiced. He asked:
“Is it not high time that we study how the preferred status of the
press be given more substance in periods of national crisis?”
The chief justice, who as editor
of the Philippine Collegian during his days at the University of the
Philippines, was one of the prime movers of the then nascent College
Editors Guild, said that like water that seeks its own course,
“press freedom, no matter how suppressed, rises to give life to
democracy.” Words of wisdom indeed that those in power,
particularly those at the defense establishment, should heed.
Perhaps as a start, the new
Congress and the President should prioritize in the legislative
agenda a freedom of information act, with narrower exemptions, more
timely response to requests for information, higher penalties for
unexplained or unwarranted denial of requests, and a reorganization
of the entire information structure of government to give more
honest disclosures of information to the media and all citizens,
instead of covering up or denying information on vital issues.
Democracy depends a lot on an
informed citizenry. Outright denial or releasing inaccurate,
misleading or false information, by government authorities is
tantamount to prior restraint of people’s right to and access to
information, which are enshrined in the 1986 Constitution. Executive
officials cannot always hide behind the President’s executive
privilege or the clear and present danger rule.
All candidates in the May
election should categorically pledge to adhere to and defend the
people’s constitutional rights, notably freedom of the press, of
speech and of assembly for redress of grievances, if only to test
their knowledge of and adherence to democratic principles.
malinaolito@yahoo.com
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