Editor's Note
Published: Jan. 28, 2006
Why is Arroyo one of the worst enemies of freedom
Because of her pathological desire to survive politically, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has turned out to be one of the worst enemies of freedom this part of the world. She not only thwarted the constitutional process that would have put to rest questions about the legitimacy of her mandate as president - she has also attempted to stifle dissent . She labels her critics terrorists and encourages the continued killing of political activists and critics by being silent about their murders and rewarding those accused of carrying out these murders.
She has also somehow convinced many Filipinos that the problem was not her and how she allegedly cheated in the 2004 elections. The problem was, in her warped view of the world, we Filipinos have too much freedom. We hold protest rallies every chance we get. We freely criticize her administration the moment we feel like it. Our news media are too noisy, too nosy, too - in her view - destructive.
And so, from the very beginning, this president - who never made secret her contempt for the press - blames the news media for almost everything that is bedeviling her administration. She tells the public that the media are the enemy, that the media are being used by the political opposition, that all the media reports are lies and nothing but lies.
It came as no surprise, then, that Arroyo and her lapdogs at the Constitutional Commission are suggesting the unthinkable: amending the Bill of Rights to check the exercise of our freedoms.
The proposed amendment - to insert the phrase "responsible exercise" in Section 4 , the section about freedom of the press, expression and peaceful assembly - is breathtaking in its arrogance. As the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines pointed out in a petition it is distributing online, the proposed amendment puts parameters around the exercise of freedom, which opens the Bill of Rights to abuse and misuse.
Add to this proposal the draconian measures in the proposed anti-terrorism bill , which, among many other dangerous provisions, penalizes journalists for interviewing so-called enemies of the state, and you have a government that is not only insecure but becoming increasingly authoritarian .
(This column was first published in the author's personal blog, pinoypress.net.)
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