By Farah G. Decano

 

WITH eyes flaming in anger, Percy Lapid stared at me.  He likely believed that he could scare me with that conduct when he appeared at a Manila court for his arraignment some ten to twelve years ago.  He had, at that time, several unimplemented warrants of arrests, but it was the warrant of arrest pursuant to my client’s case that was finally served on him.  He knew what I did.  He knew that I did not allow my client’s case to remain unresolved just because some local law enforcers feared him as a hard-hitting media person.  I escalated the matter to the Department of Interior and Local Government and stepped on the pressure so that the enforcement agencies will act to compel Mr. Lapid to face his accuser in court.

After that event in court, all I had for him was a negative impression of a person who thrived on threats.  Never mind that he looked clean and decent.  For what media person in his right mind will not want to put to rest an issue brought against him in a court of law?  I had long considered him as probably one of those paid mouthpieces who made money from the usual AC/DC (Attack-Collect/Defend-Collect) practice whose show did not deserve any of my time.  I did not even bother to listen to his opinion even when I learned that he was a Kakampink.

It was only when my nephew messaged me that Percy Lapid was murdered that I became curious.   My opinion about assassinated media personalities is that they had to be gagged because truth was on their side.  I wondered what truths he had in his artillery.  So, I finally watched his final two shows on the internet.  I expected to see him go ballistic on his radio programs in the same manner that he almost went ballistic against me in court had he not observed self-restraint.  I anticipated that he would be hurling provocative words calculated to increase sponsors and listeners of the same beliefs.  I did not hear any inflammatory statements.  The impression I had of him for years was suddenly changed.  He appeared less bombastic.  He was also logical with the manner he dissected the issues.  All of a sudden, I started to believe that he was just probably a sore litigant when I first met him.

No matter how sore a litigant is or how hard hitting a media person is, he or she does not deserve a murderous and bloody death like Mr. Lapid’s.  I pray that his death will be given justice.

And I am certain that Mr. Lapid knew that some subjects of his scathing broadcasts were not law-abiding.  He did not mince words against those who had the capacity to retaliate against him.  He may have been hushed for good but his death has drawn even more international attention to real threats against press freedoms in the Philippines.

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If Mr. Lapid was silenced forever by his killers, the former anti-terrorist NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, Lorraine Badoy, is silent, at least for now, with her seemingly murderous hypothetical scenarios.  Her prolific red-tagging aggressive behavior has been put to a halt by the Supreme Court when she was ordered to explain why she should not be found in contempt of the Judiciary because of her sweeping accusatory statements against a judge.  The Highest Court probably wants to prevent the normalization of allegedly violent language against its members.

This makes the red-tagger in danger of being tagged in orange. 

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