Mike A quits Negros Press Club membership amid protest

Six days after his induction as an honorary member of the Negros Press Club in Bacolod City, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo has tendered his resignation from the NPC.

"The First Gentleman has resigned from the Negros Press Club," Assistant Secretary Juris Umali-Soliman said in a one-sentence e-mail sent to the Philippine News Service.

The resignation came just minutes after the First Gentleman was informed that three ranking members of the NPC board tendered their "irrevocable" resignations from the club "to protest the serious damage to the integrity and honor of the NPC by the unwarranted and undeserved induction" of Mr. Arroyo as a member of the organization.

NPC senior members Arman Toga, Jaime Espina and Henry Cestina — NPC’s vice president, secretary and board director, respectively — sent their resignations in a letter dated May 9.

In their letter, Toga, Espina and Cestina condemned the refusal of NPC president Primo Esleyer to "rectify this grievous error."

"We cannot abide serving under a leadership that wantonly violates the NPC’s rules and traditions and refuses to publicly correct a mistake that has put the club’s integrity and honor in question — both to its members, the Philippine media community and the general public, whom we, as journalists, serve," the three said in their letter.

"While we understand Mr. Esleyer’s concerns about the possible effects of a public rectification of this grievous error, we feel the integrity of the club and its members, whom we swore to serve, and of the Philippine media community as a whole, hold far greater value," they said.

They added that "contrary to the publicly announced — and widely reported — claim (made by Esleyer), the (NPC) officers neither met nor passed a unanimous resolution urging the First Gentleman’s induction. It is unfortunate that this occurred on a night when Messrs. Arroyo and Esleyer harped on the truth as the cornerstone of our profession."

"We are aware that Mr. Arroyo is neither qualified nor deserving of the honor of membership in the club," they added. "First, his induction violated long-established NPC rules on membership. Mr. Arroyo is not, as far as we know, a practicing photojournalist as he claims."

Mr. Arroyo was inducted into the NPC shortly after he delivered a speech before its general membership in which he implied that a number of journalists in the country had been killed because of "irresponsible reporting."

It was during this speech that Mr. Arroyo lambasted the media for "failing to tell the truth" and for maligning him and his family with unfounded allegations. He also suggested that Manila-based journalists should instead write "detective novels and Nancy Drew books."

In the same speech, Mr. Arroyo asked Esleyer to induct him as an NPC member, claiming that besides being a true-blooded Negrense, he is a photojournalist.

"More important, Mr. Arroyo is undeserving of the honor of being an NPC member," Toga, Espina and Cestina said. "While we respect Mr. Arroyo’s right to free expression, as First Gentleman and husband of the President under whose watch the number of murdered journalists is reaching record numbers... the implication in his speech that our murdered colleagues deserved their fates was not only irresponsible, (it) reinforces the culture of impunity and violence that has led to this sorry state. How can we reward him with membership in the club?"

Since President Arroyo assumed office in 2001, 23 journalists have been murdered, with 13 of that number killed last year and five this year alone. – Antonietta Lopez, Benjie Villa, PNS