No to deal with the Marcoses

Letters

VICTIMS of martial law under dictator Ferdinand Marcos led by the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda) condemn any plan of the Duterte government to hatch a compromise agreement with the Marcoses.

If there’s no smoke, there’s no fire. The Marcoses and Duterte are making fools out of us victims and the people. We will challenge any plan of a compromise deal with the Marcoses. We strongly hold on to our stand that this is a reversal of history and an escape from accountability for their crimes of plunder and human rights violations.

Selda decries the Marcos family’s denial in pushing for a compromise agreement. Atty. Oliver Lozano is used as a dummy of the Marcoses to push through with their complete political rehabilitation.

The Marcoses are masters of denial and hypocrisy, as if the people don’t know they have used dummies and cronies to pursue their interests. Now, they’re not only using Lozano, but most especially Duterte.

There have been a number of attempts of past administrations to enter into compromise agreements with the Marcoses, but only Duterte had succeeded in becoming a total apologist for the Marcoses.

Duterte is trying to make it look like he is not part of these plans for a compromise deal, but look again. We won’t forget that he is the number one government official who pushes for the complete rehabilitation of the Marcoses since he allowed the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The Filipino people should not allow further the Marcoses’ plans to creep their way back to power by using their power and influence so they can get away from any accountability or case against them.

We appeal to the Filipino people to join us in different avenues of protests, in the name of justice not just for victims of Marcos martial law but to the people who bear the burden of the crimes of Marcos. –Trinidad Herrera-Repuno, chairman, Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda)

More Than a Business

THE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is saddened and alarmed at the layoffs of scores of staff at CNN Philippines, the latest in a series of mass firings that have seen hundreds of media workers unceremoniously left out in the cold, many of them after years of rendering impeccable service, often at great risk to life and limb.

And, based on information reaching us, it appears we have yet to see the end of these terminations, carried out in the name of “rightsizing,” “downsizing” and the other terms used in a vain attempt to sanitize the wholesale displacement of the employed and the increasing trend towards contractualization in media.

It is bad enough that the firings come at a time when Philippine journalism needs all hands on deck as it comes under increasing pressure from vindictive and intolerant government and fends off a growing wave of populist disinformation, official or otherwise, while media workers face worsening threats, old and emerging.

It is doubly unfortunate that the mass terminations underscore the fact that the Philippine media appear to have largely abandoned the public service aspect of their mandate — information and education — for the pursuit of the bottomline.

It is, alas, a trend we have seen growing through the years as more and more media workers are faced with less and less opportunities for regular employment and the benefits this brings and the exigencies of profit lead to a growing “dumbing down” of the news and the increasing prominence of “infomercials” and “infotainment.”

We stand with our displaced colleagues and offer them whatever assistance we can.

At the same time, we call for unity among our ranks. Let us organize ourselves to protect our rights as media workers while continuing to remain devoted to the tenets of our profession.

We urge media owners and managements not to throw away the heart and soul of an industry that has in no small way helped preserve and advance democracy in the country by making available to our people the information they need to come to educated decisions about their individual and collective futures. – Atty. Jo Celemnte, acting chair; Dabet Panelo, secretary-seneral; directorate, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines