SEN. Alan Peter Cayetano protested too much when he insinuates that media have been blowing up the rash of killings that have accompanied the Duterte administration’s war on drugs or worse, are embarked on a campaign to tar the present dispensation, as he did Aug. 22 in remarks he made during the Senate hearing into the deaths that have accompanied the anti-drug campaign. Ironically, Cayetano’s allegations that media have been playing loose with the numbers have been dispelled by no less than PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa who presented statistics showing that, if media have erred in counting the cost of the drug war, it is by being on the low and not, going by what the good senator would like to insinuate, on the high, side. During the Aug. 18 hearing into the drugelated killings, dela Rosa said that the death toll from July 1 to Aug. 15 was 665 in police operations and 899 others “under investigation,” including the vigilante-style extrajudicial killings whose victims, bodies wrapped in tape and/or with placards around their necks trumpeting their alleged crimes, have been dumped in the streets all too regularly. In Monday’s hearing, dela Rosa said the death toll had risen to 1,779 (712 in police operations, 1,067 allegedly by vigilantes) as of that day, slightly more than a thousand of these “under investigation,” or, going by his own figures, a jump of more than a hundred in a weeks’ time. The good senator also singled out two media outfits--ABS-CBN and the Philippine Daily Inquirer--practically accusing them of wanting to tar the administration, the broadcast network by headlining the growing outrage over the killings, the daily for its “kill list.” But what would Mr. Cayetano have the media do, play blind as the bodies pile up and go along with the canard to declare all who have died, including the innocent--and yes, there have been innocents--guilty as alleged and, thus, deserving of their fate sans due process as our laws and the very principle of rule of law that this administration wishes, and rightly so, to restore? Sadly, like Justice Secretary Vataliano Aguirre before him, Mr. Cayetano also irresponsibly raises the claim, without proffering an iota of evidence, that media are among those being bought off with drug money supposedly to discredit the administration. Again, we reiterate that such allegations, without any proof, not only serve to unjustly cast a pall of suspicion over the Philippine media and, in particular, the journalists who toil on the front lines but, much worse, put lives in danger, not only should those behind the growing plague of drugelated murders see it fit to include us as targets, but also by providing a convenient cover for those who would silence an independent press and have already claimed a horrendous toll of more than 170 from our profession’s ranks since 1986. We have no quarrel with Mr. Cayetano’s professed desire to rid the country of crime and drugs. This, we do not doubt, is the fervent wish of all Filipinos, regardless of where they stand on the issue of the war on drugs and on how this should be carried out. But we do mind it when his zeal drives him to spout careless and baseless accusations that endanger not only us but others as well. As he himself said in his remarks at the hearing, good intentions do pave the road to hell. We ask our colleagues to continue to chronicle the twists and turns of the war on drugs. That may take us to counting, or more importantly, explaining the  context of the daily piling up of deaths. -Ryan D. Rosauro, chairperson, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines   Address Roots of Poverty, War WE are happy that the formal peace talks between Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have resumed and hopeful that the talks will address the roots of poverty and armed conflict in the country. We commend President Rodrigo Duterte for his determination in pursuing the talks, as seen in his effort to free the initial batch of peace consultants who were unjustly arrested and detained. We hope this paves the way for the release of the more than 520 other political prisoners. We recognize the unilateral, reciprocal ceasefire declarations by the GPH and NDFP are further efforts to boost the talks. However, the government declaration will be empty if it will not mean a stop to all offensive operations including “peace and development”, a pull-out of military forces from communities especially of the Lumad, and a stop to harassment and arrests of activist leaders and organizers--all of which have intensified during the past few days. The resumption of the talks under Duterte exposes how the past governments especially under Aquino and Arroyo have sabotaged peace efforts by violating previous agreements, by resorting to militarism and warmongering, and by using the talks to arrest peace consultants and try to force the NDFP into surrender instead of sincerely addressing the roots of poverty and war. The current Duterte government is right in saying that what we need is not “peace of the dead” but one that is based on justice and real change. The forces who think that the country’s revolutionaries will simply surrender without meaningful reforms are delirious. The peace talks should necessarily lead to major socio-economic and political reforms which will address widespread poverty, landlessness, joblessness and hunger. The government should come to realize that in order for its campaign for “real change” to be truly meaningful, it should break away from neoliberal policies which focus on increasing dependence on foreign investments, debt-heavy infrastructure projects on one hand, while perpetuating landlessness and low wages on the other. Duterte’s economic thrust should heed the demands of the workers and peasants, not the recommendations of foreign banks, oligarchs and their trained academics, technocrats and “experts.” This should mean prioritizing free land distribution and genuine land reform for farmers, increasing workers’ wages and stopping contractualization and other labor flexibilization policies, stopping privatization of and expanding free public health and education, stopping tuition hikes and K-12, expanding subsidies for agriculture and working towards national industrialization. Ultimately, the decades-old exploitative rule of foreign powers together with a few landlord and comprador families upon the nation must end. As the saying goes, “peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice.” In the current context, it is the promise of change realized. -Vencer Crisostomo, chairperson, Anakbayan