Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

412 SESSION VI
of the news. Although the reporters want to do a good
job, they can not do so without support from other
organizations. Mr. Walter L. Batance, the Business
Manager of Mindanews, a former local reporter at a
local newspaper in Bukidnon, Mindanao, said:
“In my experience, I need money to go to find the local
news, I need time for investigation, I need expenses while
my boss asked me that if you go there how much money
you can bring back. That is the problem. Sometime
the reporters wanted to get good reports and they had
to spend their own money to cover a story, which
they couldn’t do. What is news if you only attend the
press conferences held by the politicians and officials?”
Mr. Jeferry Tupas, a correspondent of the Philippines
Daily Inquirer and a reporter of the Sun Star Davao
in Davao Province, said concerning the allowance and
welfare of local correspondents that:
“We often cry about the injustice that confronts
other— low wages, underpayment, lack or absence
of labor security and all. But journalists know—we
know—that we are also confronted with these same
problems. Compare to other employed individuals
we are even paid less. It is sad, but a cold reality it is.”
Information from the National Union of Journalists
of the Philippines (NUJP) shows the average monthly
income of local journalists in three big cities. The
average monthly income in Baguio City is PhP3,000-
5000, that in Quezon City is PhP3,000-5000, and in
Davao, it is PhP5000.
The Philippines has one of the freest press systems in
Asia but the journalists are still at risk even now. A
total of 42 journalists were killed from 1986—the end
of the Marcos Regime—to September 2003. In the last
two years, 19 were killed. When I was in Indonesia,
the Jakarta Post, an English newspaper in Indonesia,
published the story about the death of an editor in
Aurora Province of the Philippines.
On May 10, 2005, Philip Agustin, the 53-year old editor
of a local press named Starline Times in Aurora Province
was shot dead at his daughter’s house in Dingalan
town. The news reported that he was shot when coming
back from the town where he printed his papers,
bringing back 500 copies with him on his motorcycle.
Agustin was killed after he wrote an editorial on the
disappearance of money that was to be used for food aid
and on the illegal wood trade in Dingalan town when
there was a sudden flood in November 2004. Not long
after his death, the Mayor of Dingalan was called to be
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
interrogated by the Court.
When I was in the Philippines I asked some journalists,
“I have learned that during the past ten years there
have been many journalists, especially local ones, who
were killed. What do these incidents say?” But nobody
could give a clear answer. Some of them told me that
it was because they have real freedom and they can
write everything. Some of those who were killed were
good, some were bad. Hopefully, this did not mean that
both good and bad journalists are worth killing! Some
local journalists told me that these incidents occurred
because the people in this country do not respect
human rights.
Now, the local political situation in the Philippines is
rather violent so that good local reporters who dare to
present news about the examination of corruption are
at risk of being killed. Chay Florentino–Hofilena wrote
an article in 2000 entitled, “Travels of The Community
Press” in Investigating Local Government, published
by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
(PCIJ), that said:
“Local politics itself is inherently violent – deaths in
the family are avenged, resulting in an endless cycle of
political vendetta: the struggle for control over economic
resources is intense: and electoral contests are fiercely
fought. In certain parts of the country where everything
else pales compared to the power of the gun, political
violence and lawlessness are deeply entrenched, if not
difficult to control. Violence intertwined with corruption
and government incompetence often provides the context
for many local stories that become difficult to write.”
Nevertheless, journalists in Manila founded the Freedom
Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), an organization
that aims to raise funds for protecting journalists. It
is a national effort that involves collaboration among
various organizations, namely the Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Freedom of
Expression Exchange (IFEX), Reporters Sans Frontieres
(RSF), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
(PCIJ), the Center for Community Journalism and
Development (CCJD), the Center for Media Freedom
and Responsibility (CMFR), Kapisanan ng mga
Brodkaster ng Philipinas (KBP), and the Philippine
Press Institute (PPI). Since 2004, there have been seven
children of killed journalists who received money from
FFFJ.
Besides this, there are now many alternative media
organizations in Manila, such as the Philippine Center
for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the Center for