Press Freedom?

By Art Jimenez

Two very much alive cases: ABS-CBN and Rappler’s Maria Ressa. Both claim their press freedom has been and still is being trampled upon by government. The former was issued a Cease and Desist Order (CDO) on May 5, 2020 by the National Telecommunications Commission. The latter was found guilty of cyber libel by a competent regional trial court in Manila last Monday.

Their press freedom is violated?

Q: Why did ABS-CBN stop broadcasting on May 5?

A: Actually, the network should have left the air even a day earlier –on May 4- when its franchise expired. Thus, the May 5 NTC CDO was even a day late!

Q: Who sued Maria Ressa for cyber libel?

A: Mr. Wilfredo Keng, a businessman, who a Rappler story linked to human trafficking and drug smuggling in 2012 before the passage of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. However, Keng argued that Rappler republished the article in February 2014.

A Reuter’s report stated that after the guilty verdict, Ressa “accused the judiciary of becoming complicit in a campaign to stifle press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.”

Takeaway: Press freedom is not absolute; it has limits.

 

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Our condolences belong to the bereaved family and loved ones of lawyer Perfecto Yasay, Jr. who passed on last Independence Day, June 12, 2020 of pneumonia. He was the first Foreign Affairs secretary of President Duterte. Unfortunately the Commission on Appointments disapproved his appointment owing to his questioned citizenship.

I admired Yasay for his academic background and experience as a lawyer in the US and here. He was more admirable when he threw his Quixotic helmet into the 2010 VP arena and promptly lost.

Former President Fidel Ramos named Yasay SEC commissioner in 1992 and chairman in 1995. He showed extraordinary courage when he stood his ground and testified against then President Joseph Estrada during his Senate impeachment hearing and which spelled his downfall in what is known as Edsa Dos.

 

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Two months ago Part 3 of my series on the Economic Impact of Covid-19 was titled “Health or Wealth?” At that time, President Duterte was at a crossroads of whether to extend the expiring quarantine or not.  I then said, “Upon advice, President Rodrigo Duterte chose for us Health. And that’s when our economic wealth started to falter.” And falter it did.

Just last Monday, a newspaper article was partly slugged, “Economy or health?” The article proceeded: “Duterte has to weigh the need to revive the economy against continued health concerns….” If he chooses “Economy,” we could start to take goose steps into a dream renaissance where economic indicators shall point towards north. If the president chooses “health,” we might not be able to afford more SAP tranches unless we get ourselves into deeper debt.

 

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SWS SURVEY SAID! 4.1 million Filipinos of working age stranded due to quarantine! You believe that? The mobile phone survey of 4,010 samples was conducted from May 4 to 10. The results were released only last June 13. It showed 5.4 percent of working age Pinoys were outside their residence during the quarantine period. Then SWS multiplied the 5.4 percent by 75.8 million, the total number of working age Pinoys to arrive at 4.1 million! Can you beat that?

Of the 4.1 million, those stranded in Luzon numbered 1.8 million while there were 1.1 million stranded in Mindanao. Those in the Visayas numbered 700,000 while the balance of 500,000 were in NCR. You believe these numbers? Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!

If true, such huge numbers are enough to give President Duterte and our LGU chief executives a heart attack!

Takeaway: Statistics lie!