[APWSLMembers 229] NY Times EDITORIAL Dark Days for Philippine Democracy

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NY Times EDITORIAL
Dark Days for Philippine Democracy

Published: April 5, 2006

Filipinos thought they had put an end to electoral chicanery and governmental
intimidation when they overthrew the Marcos dictatorship two decades ago.
Unfortunately, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has completely lost touch
with the ideals that inspired that 1986 "people power" movement.

Mrs. Arroyo is no Ferdinand Marcos, at least not yet. But this onetime
reformer is reviving bad memories of crony corruption, presidential vote-
rigging and intimidation of critical journalists. Unless the Philippine
Congress and courts find ways to rein in her increasingly authoritarian
tendencies, democracy itself may be in danger.

This was not the outcome people expected five years ago when Mrs. Arroyo,
then the vice president, was swept into power on a wave of popular
discontent with her discredited predecessor, Joseph Estrada. In those days,
Mrs. Arroyo, a professional economist, was seen as an earnest reformer. She
won further credit by pledging not to run for a new six-year term in 2004.
But then she changed her mind, and her style of government as well. Her
narrow re-election victory became tainted after a tape revealed her
discussing her vote totals with an election commissioner while ballots were
still being counted. She survived an impeachment attempt over that incident.
But she was forced to send her husband into exile over charges that he took
bribes from gambling
syndicates.

Earlier this year she briefly declared a state of emergency in response to
allegations of a coup threat that others disputed. Since then she has been
intensifying pressure on a wide range of political critics and especially on
the press. Government officials have warned news outlets that they will be
held to restrictive new guidelines, the justice secretary talks darkly about
a journalistic watch list, and the staff members of a well-known center for
investigative journalism have been threatened with sedition charges. No
Philippine government has made such efforts to muzzle the press since the
Marcos era.

President Bush has repeatedly hailed Mrs. Arroyo as an important ally against
international terrorism. He now needs to warn her that by undermining a hard-
won democracy, she is making her country far more vulnerable to terrorist
pressures.

***

The New York Times
April 3, 2006

THE PHILIPPINES WAGES A CAMPAIGN OF INTIMIDATION
AGAINST JOURNALISTS
By SETH MYDANS

MANILA, the Philippines ­ The Philippine news media,
among the most exuberant and freewheeling in Asia, are
coming under serious government pressure for the first
time since the rule of Ferdinand Marcos more than
20 years ago.

Along with hints that the government may restrict
public assembly, the campaign against the press
strikes at the heart of the freedoms won in 1986 when
Mr. Marcos was driven from the presidency by a popular
uprising.

The pressure involves warnings, watch lists,
surveillance, court cases, harassment lawsuits and
threats of arrest on charges of sedition. No members
of the press have been arrested, although three
journalists have been charged with rebellion. No news
outlets have been shut down, although troops
surrounded several television stations for more than a
week recently.

Journalists say the situation is particularly
unnerving because of the uncertainty of what is
happening or may happen to them.

"I have a number of people on my list," Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez said in a recent television
interview. "We are studying them."

This aggressive posture follows a one-week state of
emergency imposed on Feb. 24 by President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo in response to what she said was a
coup attempt involving an array of enemies who have
been calling for her resignation.

Since then, the police have broken up several
gatherings that were seen as critical of the president
and have briefly detained some participants.

The gatherings included an annual celebration of
International Women's Day on March 8, in which a
congresswoman who opposes Mrs. Arroyo was detained, in
the words of the police, "to get her out of harm's
way."

They included a mock beauty pageant in which each
contestant was to be made up with a mole on her face
in imitation of Mrs. Arroyo.

They also included something that at first seemed like
a joke ­ small weekly protests at which participants
did nothing more than buy a cup of coffee at
Starbucks. The protesters got away with that one, but
on March 19, the same group was dispersed by the police while
walking through a park wearing T-shirts reading "Out
Now," an evident reference to the president.

Officials have spoken of intelligence they received
about planned gatherings in the same manner they have
talked about monitoring reporters ­ vaguely, seemingly
counting on the uncertainty to be more intimidating.

The director of the National Police, Gen. Arturo
Lomibao, has told news outlets that they must conform
to certain unspecified standards, which it will be up
to the government to interpret on a case-by-case
basis.

He referred to a new catchall regulation that bans
"actions that hurt the Philippine State by obstructing
governance including hindering the growth of the
economy and sabotaging the people's confidence in
government and their faith in the future of this
country."

Apparently, the goal of all this is to promote
self-censorship, said Maria Ressa, senior vice
president for news and public affairs at the ABS-CBN
Broadcasting Network, the nation's largest.

"It's crazy," she said. "You don't know what's
happening but you feel they can move on you at any
time."

Ms. Ressa has been a leader in demanding clarification
of the government's policies toward the press and in
filing a class-action lawsuit to bar prior restraint.

"There is definitely fear and uncertainty," she said.
"When government officials say, 'We have the power to
shut you down, we have the power to look at your
content,' it's intimidation."

Editors and news directors say they have prepared for
possible searches or arrests by backing up computer
files, setting aside bail money and instructing their
staff members on their legal rights if the police
enter their offices.

The government has singled out in its threatening
statements the Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism, a small, aggressive group of journalists
led by Sheila S. Coronel, a prominent journalist.

The center's exposés of corruption, presented during
congressional impeachment hearings, helped bring down
Mrs. Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada.

Government officials have said they may charge Ms.
Coronel and members of her staff with sedition, but
they are imprecise about who may be charged and on
what evidence.

"It's very insidious," Ms. Coronel said. "They say
they are studying filing sedition charges. They say
they have lists, but they don't say who is on them.
This is not how the game should be played. We know our
rights, and we should not be harassed by psychological
pressure."

Ms. Coronel was one of a group of young women who were
reporters and became well known for defying Mr. Marcos
in the early 1980's, a time when journalists were
being harassed and arrested.

"People went to prison, people died for this freedom,"
Ms. Coronel said, "and if you give it up it is a
betrayal of all the sacrifices that people have made
in the past, people I know personally. It really makes
me mad."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company