Punchline
Citizens of the world
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
WASHINGTON D.C. JULY 28 – Finally, I had the opportunity to visit the Newseum last week and saw how my father, Ermin Erfe Garcia, was honored by the institution listing his name in the Journalists Memorial as among the press martyrs in the world as he died in 1966 for the cause of press freedom. The mass killing of the Maguindanao journalists top the billing for 2010. That was the sentimental part of my recent trip to Washington D.C. but there was far more to the Newseum than I had imagined.
The really awesome feature of Newseum is its enormous material and data resource that cannot but make the visitor realize that one can no longer isolate one’s self from world events and say that what’s happening in other countries does not and cannot affect him or her. Reading, viewing and listening to how people around the world lived, suffered, rejoiced in the past provide lessons on how we can become peaceful citizens of the world, not of just one nation.
Young and old visitors to Newseum are thrust back to past world events that most never know nothing or little about, i.e., wars, conflicts, sports triumphs, environmental disasters, and they leave with a better understanding of why the world is what it is today.
Fortunately for this and succeeding generations, internet and technology have already made it possible for most everyone to be abreast of significant events around the globe as these happen. But it is in understanding the world’s past that we can begin to appreciate our evolution as a community in this planet.
If you get the chance to set foot on Washington DC, make Newseum a “must-see” destination with your children and I assure you that, more than a peek inside the White House, the visit would make your trip truly rewarding.
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WHAT DIFFERENCE THE LAW MAKES. While in Chicago, I came across an article written by Peter Baugher, a topnotch lawyer, commenting on the week’s major political event. He titled it: “A bad day for politics, a good day for the law”. It is one article I hope I would be able to write in my lifetime.
He wrote about the impending trial of former Illinois Gov. Blagojevich who’s facing charges of racketeering, mail fraud, attempted extortion, and bribery. He underscored the fact “that the systemic corruption has undermined and distracted attention from the substantive problems facing all state governments: budget deficits, programs that don’t work, out of line pension and health care obligations, underfunding of education and important public services.”
He continued: “The most debilitating tax we pay is not the income tax or the sales tax. It is the corruption tax levied on every Illinois citizen by a succession of out of control politicians.” Touche!
Sounds familiar, I thought to myself. Don’t we all know that to be so true in the Philippines? But that’s as far as the familiarity goes. Mr. Baugher quickly pointed out what we in the Philippines could only dream of.
He wrote: “So it was a bad day for politics. But it is a good day for law. Faced with public crimes, our legal system is again providing redress. An independent prosecutor is forcing our former top state official to account for his conduct. The trial will take place in an independent federal court, presided over by a judge with a lifetime appointment who cannot be removed for political reasons.”
What finally made me groan in deep frustration over our situation was how he ended his discourse: “The trial is likely to inform us — in some ways we might just as soon not know -how our state government has been run. But it will also likely remind us that no one stands above the law, and that we are all responsible, as citizens, jurors, lawyers and judges for making our collective enterprise run fairly and honestly.”
And yet today, even as our new government forms the “Truth Commission”, (a redundant effort in an otherwise judiciary system that works) to be led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, there are already serious doubts whether it can ferret out the truth and successfully establish a case against ex-President Arroyo and her cabal.
Can the Truth Commission remind us in the end that no one stands above the law? Will I have the chance to write and affirm as Mr. Baugher did on their situation?
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IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM? I don’t know what prompted P-Noy to give that unsolicited advice in his SONA on how we in the community media should conduct ourselves. At first blush, one would not find anything wrong with it. What could be wrong with a statement that sincerely sounded like a candid brotherly advice? But was it?
As I pondered what could have possibly motivated Mr. Aquino to give that piece of advice, it dawned on me that his statement was, in fact, an implicit threat. Mr. Aquino cautioned us that he has accepted as fact the information and impression of his peers in politics and the police investigators that the assassination of community journalists were prompted largely by irresponsible journalism.
But what is irresponsible journalism? To report and comment about a shenanigan involving a politician, a government employee? Is it now irresponsible journalism to call public attention to evident corruption in the city hall and in Congress? To describe corrupt elected officials as thieves? To expose cops who deal in illegal gambling, shabu and protection racket?
Community media practitioners are the people’s watchdogs of local governments. Sure, there are untrained and unethical practitioners among us who “attack-and-collect, defend-and-collect” but these are the men and women that the President need not worry about. These “practitioners” are quickly silenced by cash (or brand new laptops), not by bullets.
The journalists who have been silenced permanently were those who took their missions as watchdogs to heart, among them the massacred little known community journalists of Maguindanao.
Mr. Aquino would have served democracy and good governance better if he had told journalists: “Go forth and report, and I, as your President, will do all to make sure that you can report without fear.”
He didn’t. No wonder the international press community continues to label Philippines as “partly free press”. The threats and violence on community journalists continue.
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