Welcome back to Slow News Days, a now-and-then newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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You may have heard by now about how, in response to the murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid in Las Piñas City on October 3, the Philippine National Police ordered police in the capital to hold dialogues with journalists and also urged media workers to report threats that they receive.
If you hadn’t, you will likely have heard how that order led to at least three journalists reporting cops showing up at their homes unannounced and, in at least one case, out of uniform.
NCRPO has apologized for the anxiety caused but there is some disagreement on whether there should be fuss about them at all.
The Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade says the journalism community should just be thankful for police attention (or surveillance, which is what they describe in a post defending the visits).
At least one colleague has also said that privacy should not be an issue since people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from the police — a sentiment that is overly optimistic and at odds with reality and common sense.
Press groups — including the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, National Press Club of the Philippines and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas — were quick to say that while police intentions were good, the implementation and potential invasion of privacy were less so.
We have assumed good faith, although I have since been wondering whether this is actually warranted.
A veteran journalist said on social media that “[t]he excuse given was bizarre at best and amounted to sugarcoated tokhang - ‘We’re watching you and we know where you are’.” A friend on Facebook recalled secret marshals and surveillance on government critics during the Martial Law period.
How the police obtained journalists’ addresses is also a cause for concern and one that we have raised, but not as loudly perhaps as our repeated assurances to the police that we appreciate their efforts.
Part of why, possibly, is that media has been painted in recent years as enemies of the government and having threats against us validated and addressed is a welcome development. Too loud a protest could mean a return to how things used to be.
Also, because the thought that the visits weren’t done in good faith and that they can find out — if they don’t already know — where we live is too terrifying for me to contemplate at a time when many in the media community already feel unsafe.
The murder of Percy Lapid and the police visits have left journalists in Metro Manila a little more chilled but the quick response by press groups (and our general agreement despite specific differences) does give some hope for the solidarity that the community needs to protect and defend each other and to keep doing the work that we do.
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Rappler has a comprehensive write-up of the visits: To secure Metro journalists, police visit their houses, ask their contacts
Also from Rappler, a two-part series on relocated communities in Pampanga struggling to recover from a typhoon that hit the region in September:
Tale of two Pampanga villages shows critical role of local gov’t disaster response
Neglect, bigotry hound folk on the margins of rich Pampanga
We did a series on alt-meats for Philstar.com last month, here’s a related story from that reporting trip: In Lupang Ramos, resistance and hope after a letdown at polls
Finally, this post from Max Limpag who is in Cebu City but is also on the same porch from where I yell at kids and the sky as an old man: Sun.Star Cebu’s Facebook page scrapes bottom with Kim’s behind