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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
MORE than 50 journalists from various media
groups marked World Press Freedom Day on May 3 by offering flowers
at the national shrine of Marcelo H. del Pilar in Bulacan and
holding a fellowship of songs and poems in the night.
Del Pilar, a Bulacan native, was editor of the
revolutionary paper La Solidaridad who stressed that journalists
have a historical role to play in changing social situations and
should defend freedom and democracy with their pen and voice.
“This day marks our commitment to continue
fighting to uphold the truth even while we have noted fewer killings
of journalists. Yet, the Philippines remains on the shame list of
countries notorious for crimes against press freedom,” said Jose
Torres, president of the National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines (NUJP), one of the event organizers.
At least 93 journalists allegedly have been
killed since 1986. Some 58 of them were killed starting February
2001, after President Gloria Arroyo took over the helm of the land.
For a time, the Philippines was notorious as the
country with the most number of killings of journalists, even while
it is not in a state of war, unlike Iraq and Somalia.
Less than 10 percent of these cases have been
lodged in the courts. Torres decried, “To date, there are no
masterminds identified in the cases and investigation of the other
cases is dragging.”
Several more are facing libel charges in
different parts of the country, many already convicted and with
cases on appeal.
Tonette Orejas, a journalist from Pampanga, said
of seven charges filed against writers in her province, only her
case was dismissed. Six other writers have been convicted by the
trial court and had appealed their conviction. One of them, George
Hubierna, has his case pending at the appellate level and is only
out on bail for the last 10 years.
Among the news organizations that offered
“Press Freedom wreaths” are NUJP, Center for Media Freedom and
Responsibility, Philippine Press Institute, ABC 5, and Philippine
Daily Inquirer, and the Punla (Pulso ng Madla) local paper.
NUJP plans to make the wreath-laying at the Del
Pilar shrine in Bulacan, Bulacan, a yearly activity to underscore
the importance of media in Philippine society.
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