THE Committee to Protect Journalists says that there are at
least 199 unsolved murders in several countries during a 10-year period.
Twenty-four of these cases are in the Philippines. The other unsolved murders
number 79 in Iraq, at least 20 in Colombia, 14 in Russia, nine in Sierra Leone,
eight in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, seven in Afghanistan and Mexico,
and five in Somalia, Nepal and India.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says: "Attacks on freedom of
the press are attacks against international law, against humanity, against
freedom itself – against everything the United Nations stands for. I am
therefore all the more alarmed at the way journalists are increasingly being
targeted around the world, and dismayed when such crimes are not thoroughly
investigated and prosecuted.
"I call on all societies to spare no effort in bringing to
justice the perpetrators of attacks on journalists... And I call on everyone of
us to work for the freedom – and the safety – of the press everywhere."
***
The elections on Sunday at the National Press Club (NPC) is
being billed as a battle between the evil empire of those who use journalism as
a tool to gain power, make petty graft money on the side, as against the force
of responsible and respected journalists.
On the one side are the newer members composed mostly of
"journalists" from hole-in-the-wall publications who have generally taken over
the NPC. For instance, Hataw, a tabloid of minimal circulation, has 76 voting
members; Police Files Tonite, another tabloid, has 71, and Remate, with a larger
circulation than the last two combined, has 60.
On the other hand, the whole Journal Group with three
tabloids, all with huge circulations, has only 46. The Philippine Star – one
broadsheet and two tabloids – has 51. The Bulletin Group (one broadsheet, two
tabloids and five magazines) has 93. Abante, the largest circulation paper in
the country, has 15.
Something is wrong somewhere. Admittedly, the group presently
running the NPC is not composed of the best in Philippine journalism. Similar
press clubs in other countries are treated with great respect. Here, the NPC has
fallen into disgrace. Something ought to be done.
Unfortunately, it is not a simple question of having more
members from the more respectable journals.
Sure, the present board was responsible for selling the mural
that was painted by Manansala. Not a great mural but the fact that Manansala
painted it gave the NPC over P10 million which, sadly, is not reflected anywhere
in the books of the organization. The present board then commissioned a group of
activist Angono artists to paint a new mural. Again, this was not much as a work
of art but the scandal was that the Board had other artists retouch it when the
president of the Philippines came to visit. They blotted out anything in the
mural that showed social consciousness.
Those are some of the sins of the present crowd. But the
previous boards were really not any better.
The NPC began in earnest as an organization when President
Magsaysay gave it the land on which to put up its building which it built from
donations and borrowed funds from the GSIS. Since then, the constant story has
been of unpaid bills – water, light and even wages – and missing funds. Even
donated funds for children of journalists (where only the interest on the money
should have been used) are no longer in the bank account where it was supposed
to be for all time.
In the end, no one else is to blame but the members
themselves. Our own apathy allows the scalawags and outright crooks among us
journalists to run the club that – even briefly – once had a glorious past.
As a lifetime member of the NPC (an honor given to those who
have been in the profession for close to a lifetime), I vote in NPC elections
which this year will be on Sunday; general assembly in the morning and voting in
the afternoon. I have not voted for a long time but I will this time.
The lifetime members are a huge force. One journalist calls
us "super delegates" and our numbers can offset even the large votes of the ones
from Hataw, Police File Tonite and Remate. Certainly there are more super
delegates than active members from all of the broadsheets combined.
If you are a lifetime member of the NPC, come on Sunday and
cast your vote. Your National Press Club needs your vote to bring the NPC back
to sanity.
***
We have a letter: "You are absolutely right. The politicians
who are advocating a federal form of government are out to establish their own
fiefdoms by chopping up the country. They have been misleading our people. They
have not told our people that they will be taxed heavily to maintain a federal
government.
"A vast new bureaucracy will be created under a federal
government. This will represent the state governments which will be inserted
between the national government and the local governments. This is expensive.
Using the US as an example, a typical American pays 5 percent in state sales
taxes plus 8 percent of his gross income as state income tax. These taxes are on
top of the income and sales taxes he pays the federal government. Given the
digressive nature of our tax system, a federal government will mean additional
tax burdens for the poor but not the rich.
"Creating a new bureaucracy in a developing country will also
mean creating a new level of corruption. It will discourage foreign investment
and be inimical to national growth.
"A foreign investor now has to deal on tax matters with one
corrupt agency, the national BIR. Under a federal system he will deal with
twelve corrupt BIRs, the national BIR plus the eleven state BIRs. For police
protection, he has to deal now with one corrupt agency, the PNP. Under a federal
system he will have to deal with an additional eleven corrupt state police
agencies. You can keep on expanding this list to include the corrupt practices,
which will now be handled by twelve instead of just one corrupt national agency.
"Let us hope our people see through this cheap trick our
politicians are promising them and reject a federal form of government." –
Hermie C. Cruz
***
Yes, Hermie, and add a state legislature, state courts and a
state supreme court, among other additional items that will need raising a lot
of state tax money to create and operate.
***
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite
direction." – Albert Einstein
***
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