President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was all smiles yesterday as she announced the lifting of Proclamation 1017. As I watched her, I was reminded of former President Ferdinand Marcos as he announced in 1981 the “lifting” of Martial Law and the proclamation of a “New Republic.”
Marcos’ was, of course, a farcical one. Theatrics. I can still recall that even after the supposed lifting of Martial Law, human rights violations continued to be committed in the cities and the countrysides. Countless lives were lost because of widespread “salvagings”. Worse, millions of Filipinos wallowed in abject poverty. (Actually, until now.)
Today, after GMA anounced the lifting of 1017, several sectors met it with skepticism. As I browsed the world wide web, the first reaction I encountered was that of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales’: Despite the lifting of the state of national emergency … monitoring of the media would continue.
“I have here tapes and disks, which are being transcribed. I want to know what have been said actually,” Gonzalez said, noting that the DoJ wanted to see if there was anything seditious in the commentaries or if the coverage favored the destabilizers.
Gonzalez added that one thing he learned from Proclamation 1017 was that even the “most rebellious media were intimidated by the proclamation and [as a result] had begun to reexamine their policies.”
This may be the reason why the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines immediately called on the media to remain vigilant.
Here’s the full NUJP statement:
We welcome President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s decision to rescind Proclamation 1017.
Indeed, having met a massive outpouring of protest from all sectors of Philippine society and from abroad, many from media groups and individuals, questioning and denouncing the proclamation’s curtailment of civil liberties, we think she cannot have done otherwise.
Never has the Philippine media shown such acute insight and such broad unity (see below.) We have said that silence is the best ally of tyranny. Now we also know its corollary: that tyranny cannot last with a vigilant citizenry.
That same vigilance, however, reminds us that it is not the time to lower our guards. With the rescinding of Proclamation 1017:
We demand that police director general Arturo Lomibao withdraw all the threats he has earlier made on media institutions.
We demand that the National Telecommunications Commission withdraw all orders controlling the broadcast of news and media affairs.
We demand that all programs suspended in connection with the Proclamation 1017 be restored, specifically Diyos at Bayan (QTV) of Eddie Villanueva, and Ngayon na Bayan of DZRJ.
We demand that Mrs. Arroyo categorically announce that government will respect the people’s constitutional right to a free press.
We demand that all police forces deployed in media institutions be recalled.
Press freedom was one of most serious victims of martial law in 1972.
Never again!
