Is the press being muzzled?

LAST Friday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo scolded GMA Network television reporter Tina Panganiban-Perez for allegedly "abetting rebellion" by interviewing Senator Gregorio Honasan before the proclamation of a state of rebellion had been lifted. She even publicly questioned whether Perez's superiors at the network knew what she was doing, telling Perez that she would check with GMA Network management to find out if she had their approval to interview Honasan.

Shocked by the President's outburst, Perez just remained silent as the President berated her. Perez later explained that of course she had the permission of her superiors at the network, and that all their reporters were even encouraged to go out and try to be the first to interview Honasan.

Perez had told the President that she had interviewed Honasan at a certain date, but the President contradicted her by saying an intelligence agent had followed her and seen her interviewing the senator before the proclamation of a state of rebellion had been lifted.

Whether or not this makes any difference depends on which side of the fence you're on. To reporters, anyone who is of interest to a current development is fair game for an interview, even if he is the suspected head of the July 27 coup attempt. And in any case, the government hasn't charged him with anything yet, so what's the big deal?

It's really not the job of the press to point out the location of persons on the run to the government. That is the job of intelligence agents who work for the government. If President Macapagal was mad because it took a TV reporter to lead them to Honasan, why did she take it out on Perez? And if the government already knew where the senator was, why didn't they arrest him? Perhaps it's because they didn't, and still don't, have enough evidence that would stand up in a court of law?

After many in the press expressed shock and outrage at the President's dressing down of Perez, the President's handlers must have realized what a mistake it had been to do so and the furious spinning of damage control swung into action. The President visited the headquarters of GMA Network on Saturday to assure network officials that she wouldn't press charges against Perez. But the damage had already been done, and it sent a chilling message to all journalists that if the government doesn't like your stories, for whatever reason, threats can me made against you.

It's just so sad that in a country such as the Philippines, where freedom of the press has a long and healthy tradition (not withstanding the martial law years of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship), a president feels she can intimidate a TV reporter for having interviewed a senator that she doesn't like.

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AS the campaigning for the 2004 presidential elections heats up, candidates are slinging more mud at one another.

With the Macapagal administration scared stiff of opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson's bid for the presidency, the Kuratong Baleleng rubout charges against Lacson are being revived despite the Supreme Court having ruled a few years ago that the whole episode was closed.

In a counter-attack, Lacson this week gave a privileged speech in the Senate in which he alleged that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo had laundered more than 200 million pesos using bank accounts of close associates and through dummy accounts held in the name of "Jose Pidal." Deposit slips and bank account statements were all produced to back up the senator's allegations.

Malacañang has called the charges a "fairy tale," and Mr. Arroyo has denied the charges. But why should we believe the President and her husband on face value? The Macapagal administration has played hardball whenever it has suited them, accusing July 27 coup attempt leader Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV of being corrupt and up for graft charges because he forgot to list his vehicles and one-million-peso investment in a pyramiding scam.

But isn't that being disingenuous, to say the least? How about the undeclared wealth that the First Couple has conveniently left off its joint Statement of Assets and Liabilities? Perhaps they were genuine omissions, but a full investigation should be made and all their assets should be publicly declared.

President Macapagal has always campaigned on a platform of being squeaky clean, so she has in effect placed the bar by which we measure good governance quite high. Former presidents Joseph Estrada and Fidel Ramos never made similar claims, so the public never expected their rule to be 100-percent graft-free. Now the administration is making a big show of doing lifestyle checks on Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue officials, with some being charged with corruption for having huge amounts of unexplained wealth. A smokescreen for its own sins? It sure looks like it!

The Daily Tribune, an opposition newspaper that has no love lost for the Macapagal administration, summed it up best in the editorial "No Fairy Tale":

"Demonizing Lacson is not going to appease the public that wants answers from the presidential spouse. Besides, the senator has already been demonized too much by the Palace and attempting to divert the issue of conjugal corruption by launching an attack on Lacson will be seen as such: A demolition job on Lacson to divert the Jose Pidal and corruption issue, which the Filipino people want the presidential couple to confront and soon because they know it is no fairy tale spun by the opposition senator."

When your house is not completely clean, one should be careful in casting the first stone, don't you agree?

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at manilamoods@hotmail.com. Visit the author's website at www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.