Posted on 02/26/2006 5:16:45 AM PST by daviddennis
No one in Malacañang wants to take responsibility for the raid early Saturday morning on the editorial office and printing press of The Daily Tribune, which is highly critical of the Arroyo administration, and the virtual takeover later of the newspaper, with top Palace aides refusing to state who had ordered the raid and the shutdown.
Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief Ninez Cacho-Olivares yesterday said the raid, which took place just hours after President Arroyo declared a nationwide state of emergency last Friday, was a “very clear attempt to close us down.”
“There were no calls or warrants. They can intimidate me all they like but I will fight them every inch of the way. If they close us down, I will go to the
Supreme Court,” Olivares added.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the raid was done at the “ground level” but declined to comment if it has blessing from Malacañang.
“We want to know the circumstances first but we believe that it has a reason. Authorities would not be too capricious against the Tribune and Abante,” Bunye said during a radio interview over RMN News Manila.
Abante is a tabloid published by Malaya, another newspaper critical of the government whose printing press that it shares with the Tribune was also raided on the same day.
Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said the raid should serve as a stern warning to other media entities to stop publishing seditious stories against the Arroyo government.
Like Bunye, Defensor also refused to say who had ordered the raid.
He claimed that the Tribune was taken over because of reports that it has a connection with or has been used by coup plotters.
Defensor did not elaborate.
Another top Palace aide, Ricardo Saludo, for his part, said Malacañang does not know why the Tribune offices were raided.
Director General Arturo Lomibao of the Philippine National Police was as specific as Defensor, announcing during a press conference the temporary takeover of the Tribune.
The country’s media groups have condemned the takeover of the Tribune and the presence of troops at broadcast networks after the government declared a state of emergency.
An executive at broadcast network ABS-CBN also yesterday said 18 armed troops were sent to their suburban compound in Quezon City with instructions to protect the perimeter.
Last Friday, Mrs. Arroyo declared a state of emergency, citing “clear and present danger” to the elected government from the “extreme left” and “military adventurists” plotting her overthrow.
The declaration allows the government to secure public and private utilities.
Staff at Malaya and Abante said they expected to be taken over as well.
The raid came on the 20th anniversary of the fall of strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
The media groups branded the crack down a violation of press freedom and an attempt to wind the clock back to the “dark days” of Marcos, who ruled for 20 years until a civilian-backed military mutiny dubbed Edsa I “people power” revolt forced him into exile on Feb. 25, 1986.
Police raided the offices of the Tribune in Manila after the staff had gone home and confiscated documents.
At the printing press, they managed to confiscate a few hundred copies of the paper’s Saturday issue.
Olivares arrived for work and asked a policeman: “What are you doing here?”
She quoted him as saying: “I am here to secure the area as it is a possible source of destablization.”
Olivares snapped back: “Really ... then arrest me.”
She said the government was taking over the paper and other newspapers “contributing to the country’s instability.”
“No one has explained what will happen. There was no warrant. The search was illegal. For now, I intend to try and get a paper out tonight,” Olivares told a press conference.
“I don’t know what all this means. Will it mean they (the government) will censor us? Because if they do, I will fight it. Or will they just close us down? If they do, I will fight that too,” she said.
Amado Macasaet, chairman and president of the Philippine Press Institute and publisher of Malaya, said in a statement: “Twenty years ago, the people threw out a dictatorship. We should not allow — nay, we should resist — a return to those dark days of repression.”
“We are not destabilizers or coup plotters. Our duty in the media is to report as truthfully as we can, guided by our best lights,” Macasaet added.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also condemend the raid on the Tribune offices and the sending of troops to television stations.
“We reject the Arroyo government’s attempts to assign blame on media for its current crisis and urge our media colleagues across the country not to be cowed by threats, open or veiled, seeking to scare us from boldly performing our jobs as we must,” NUJP chairman Jose Torres said.
Newsbreak magazine editors have expressed support for the Tribune and at the same time aired fear for itself that it might as well suffer Tribune’s fate.
“We view the raid on the Tribune, an opposition newspaper, with alarm. It appears to signal the start of a crack down on media organizations. We have always believed that repression is never the answer to a critical press. We remind the authorities that a free press is a cornerstone of a democracy. Without it, we cannot claim to be a democratic country,” Marites Danguilan-Vitug, Newsbreak editor-in-chief said in a statement said.
Vergel Santos of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility likened the Tribune raid to the early days of martial rule.
Santos said media organizations must band together and oppose the proclamation or any attempt that would curb the freedom of the press.
The National Telecommunications Commission also last Friday warned media groups against broadcasting calls for the removal of Mrs. Arroyo by force.
Broadcasters were asked to restrain themselves so they would not inadvertently provide “aid or support” to those calling for the ouster of the President, a presidential aide said.
Despite the Tribune raid and virtual shutdown, Bunye said the government is still respecting the freedom of the press, but added every right has a limit especially if national interest is at stake.
“For those who conducted the raid, those who executed the action, I know they are prepared to answer for their actions in court. We are already anticipating any complaints and any questions about the said action,” he added. Sherwin C. Olaes, Jun P. Yap, Dona Policar, Gerry Baldo and AFP
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