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Thursday, June 01, 2006
Arming journalists may 'help' assassins
By Antonio M. Ajero
DAVAO CITY -- Arming journalists will not discourage a determined assassin from killing them, and it might even provide an assailant with an alibi of self-defense, said Maximino "Max" J. Edralin Jr., a veteran journalist.
Edralin, now public relations consultant to the office of the governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), is opposing the proposal to allow journalists to carry firearms as a measure to check the growing number of media practitioners being assassinated in the Philippines.
Since 2000, a total 42 Filipino journalists have been killed. In 2006 alone, 10 mediamen, or an average of two every month, have been murdered. The grim statistics makes the Philippines the second most dangerous place for journalists, next only to Iraq.
Edralin was in Davao City to attend big events related to another BSP he is connected with -- he is national public relations commissioner and past national president of the Boy Scout of the Philippines. The events are the annual national BSP council meeting and opening of the 2nd BIMP Eaga urban scouting jamboree attended by about 5,000 boy scouts and scouters Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Maldives, Ghana, South Korea and India.
Edralin was one of about 100 active and former media practitioners asked about their views on the proposal of arming journalists in a nationwide survey through SMS (Short Messaging System) or text messaging conducted by the Sun.Star Davao.
The survey done last week (May 25 to 26) indicated that 72 out of the 100 respondents, or seven out of every 10, reject the idea of allowing newsmen to carry firearm.
It is not farfetched that a suspected assassin of a journalist, granting he is identified and prosecuted, might claim that he had to shoot the newsman in self-defense as he saw the latter draw a gun first, Edralin said.
Senior media practitioners and media observers may recall that Edralin and four other reporters of his time were ordered jailed for refusing to divulge the source of sensational extortion attempt related to the celebrated Manuel Monroy murder case against the late Oscar Castelo, secretary of justice and concurrent secretary of national defense under the late president Elpidio Quirino.
The four other reporters, already deceased, were Manuel Salak of The Manila Times, Jose Aspiras of the Evening News (Aspiras became congressman and secretary of tourism), Tito de Leon of The Manila Chronicle, and Greg Coronel of the Philippines News Service. The incident, which made the five instant celebrities at the time, precipitated the amendment of the Press Freedom Law. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(June 1, 2006 issue)
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