ANGELES CITY — Some 40 policemen, backed by a SWAT (special weapons and tactics) van blocked the way of 30 journalists who mounted a picket in front of the Holy Angel University here where President Arroyo graced the blessing of a chapel yesterday.
It was virtually a one-on-one face-off between the policemen and journalists belonging to the Pampanga Press Club, Society of Pampanga Columnists, Central Luzon Media Association, Angeles City Press and Radio Club, Pampanga Tri-Media Association and provincial chapters of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas.
The groups held the picket as their participation in the “Global Day of Solidarity against the Maguindanao Massacre” called by the International Federation of Journalists.
The point of their outrage is the murder of at least 30 journalists on Nov. 23—the highest death toll so far from a single event in the news media community in the country and elsewhere in the world. Butchered with the journalists were at least 37 civilians, most of them women in the Mangudadatu clan who filed the certificate of candidacy of their relative running for governor. The carnage has been blamed on the Ampatuan clan.
In the picket, Pampanga journalists also scored the impunity that characterized the 99 incidents of media killings since 2001. The police’s Task Force Usig considers most of those to be “solved” because the cases had been filed in court. No mastermind has ever been put to jail, though.
They timed the picket at 9:30 a.m. or about the same time of Ms Arroyo’s arrival at the Holy Angel University for a mass presided over by the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, Most Rev. Edward Joseph Adams. Security was tight at the auditorium, according to a source in the Office of the Press Secretary. Anyone allowed in can only go out after the entire event is finished, he said, asking not be named for lack of authority to speak on security matters.
The journalists held the picket after marching from the Holy Rosary Parish where they attended a Mass offered for the eternal repose of their slain colleagues.
In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said,”This [Maguindanao massacre] is one piece of news that seems to have a longer shelf life than most other news because it hits the reporters really up close, because we know what can happen the moment you and the rest of your colleagues fall silent.”
“You can fall into any of the three forms of journalistic silence: One, the silence of the lambs; Two, the silence of the Judases; and Three, the silence of a volcano preparing to erupt,” David told the journalists.
At the sidewalk across HAU, journalists held their ground while the policemen, stood less than two meters away in a single file and without a space between them. A van of the police’s SWAT blocked the way. All gates to the HAU were closed.
The journalists stood in silence, just showing the message printed on their black shirts: “Stop killing journalists.”
What held those words together was an image of backhoe, the equipment used to bury the victims of the massacre.
Because the policemen kept their phalanx tight, motorists could hardly read the message on the single tarpaulin the journalists brought. It demanded swift justice for the media colleagues and an end to the impunity of media killings.
Policemen also shoved some reporters, including this correspondent, when the journalists tried to walk past the SWAT van.
Senior Inspector Danilo Cadiz, the ground commander, begged the journalists to disperse, telling NUJP-Pampanga president Ashley Manabat: “Tutal napiktyuran na kayo, puede na kayong umalis (Since you have drawn media mileage, you can leave now).”
When the journalists did not budge, Cadiz asked Manabat to show a permit for the “rally.”
Manabat said no permit was obtained because the activity was not a rally in the first place. “What should just be a dull roving picket turned up tense because of the overreaction of these policemen,” he said on local radios later.
Manabat said the roving picket was organized two weeks ago. The Philippine Information Agency gave advice for Ms Arroyo’s visit on Tuesday, advising also on Wednesday that the Mass at the HAU was for in-house coverage only, meaning it was off-limits to media.
Journalists humored the situation by saying that Cadiz’s “spunk and bravery” merited an assignment to Maguindanao “where his kind is most needed.”
No officials accompanying Ms Arroyo in the HAU visit went out to meet Pampanga journalists.
It was virtually a one-on-one face-off between the policemen and journalists belonging to the Pampanga Press Club, Society of Pampanga Columnists, Central Luzon Media Association, Angeles City Press and Radio Club, Pampanga Tri-Media Association and provincial chapters of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas.
The groups held the picket as their participation in the “Global Day of Solidarity against the Maguindanao Massacre” called by the International Federation of Journalists.
The point of their outrage is the murder of at least 30 journalists on Nov. 23—the highest death toll so far from a single event in the news media community in the country and elsewhere in the world. Butchered with the journalists were at least 37 civilians, most of them women in the Mangudadatu clan who filed the certificate of candidacy of their relative running for governor. The carnage has been blamed on the Ampatuan clan.
In the picket, Pampanga journalists also scored the impunity that characterized the 99 incidents of media killings since 2001. The police’s Task Force Usig considers most of those to be “solved” because the cases had been filed in court. No mastermind has ever been put to jail, though.
They timed the picket at 9:30 a.m. or about the same time of Ms Arroyo’s arrival at the Holy Angel University for a mass presided over by the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, Most Rev. Edward Joseph Adams. Security was tight at the auditorium, according to a source in the Office of the Press Secretary. Anyone allowed in can only go out after the entire event is finished, he said, asking not be named for lack of authority to speak on security matters.
The journalists held the picket after marching from the Holy Rosary Parish where they attended a Mass offered for the eternal repose of their slain colleagues.
In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said,”This [Maguindanao massacre] is one piece of news that seems to have a longer shelf life than most other news because it hits the reporters really up close, because we know what can happen the moment you and the rest of your colleagues fall silent.”
“You can fall into any of the three forms of journalistic silence: One, the silence of the lambs; Two, the silence of the Judases; and Three, the silence of a volcano preparing to erupt,” David told the journalists.
At the sidewalk across HAU, journalists held their ground while the policemen, stood less than two meters away in a single file and without a space between them. A van of the police’s SWAT blocked the way. All gates to the HAU were closed.
The journalists stood in silence, just showing the message printed on their black shirts: “Stop killing journalists.”
What held those words together was an image of backhoe, the equipment used to bury the victims of the massacre.
Because the policemen kept their phalanx tight, motorists could hardly read the message on the single tarpaulin the journalists brought. It demanded swift justice for the media colleagues and an end to the impunity of media killings.
Policemen also shoved some reporters, including this correspondent, when the journalists tried to walk past the SWAT van.
Senior Inspector Danilo Cadiz, the ground commander, begged the journalists to disperse, telling NUJP-Pampanga president Ashley Manabat: “Tutal napiktyuran na kayo, puede na kayong umalis (Since you have drawn media mileage, you can leave now).”
When the journalists did not budge, Cadiz asked Manabat to show a permit for the “rally.”
Manabat said no permit was obtained because the activity was not a rally in the first place. “What should just be a dull roving picket turned up tense because of the overreaction of these policemen,” he said on local radios later.
Manabat said the roving picket was organized two weeks ago. The Philippine Information Agency gave advice for Ms Arroyo’s visit on Tuesday, advising also on Wednesday that the Mass at the HAU was for in-house coverage only, meaning it was off-limits to media.
Journalists humored the situation by saying that Cadiz’s “spunk and bravery” merited an assignment to Maguindanao “where his kind is most needed.”
No officials accompanying Ms Arroyo in the HAU visit went out to meet Pampanga journalists.
