Duterte takes on media

Don’t f…with me – Rody

DAVAO CITY – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte not only refused to apologize yesterday for saying certain corrupt journalists deserved to be killed, but also challenged media workers to expose the “hypocrisy” in their ranks.

“Don’t f… with me,” Duterte told a press conference at past 9 last night. “You know, guys, you think too much of yourself… you want (to have) your cake and eat it too.”

He said he was ready to submit a list of journalists who served as mouthpieces of certain politicians and received bribes and “favors.”

“If worse comes to worst, we’ll expose each other,” he said. “I am ready to lose the presidency. Now. Or my honor, or my life. Just do not f… with me.”

He said the “vultures of journalism” were mostly the ones being murdered, as he challenged media groups to cleanse their ranks of corruption and “let’s unveil the hypocrisy.”

All the “lowlifes,” he said, “can die for all I care.”

Before opening himself to a profanity-laced question-and-answer portion, he said, “I’m through with my rantings.”

Earlier yesterday, his spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte would not say sorry.

“You only apologize if you committed something wrong, but the president-elect has not committed anything wrong with what he said,” Panelo told reporters.

During his press conference in Davao City Tuesday night, Duterte justified the killings of corrupt journalists. He even said one of them was a “son of a bitch” who deserved to die.

Panelo said what Duterte meant is that one “does not have to be a journalist to get killed. It will only happen to you if you have done something wrong and offended anyone.”

He described calls for Duterte to apologize as “misplaced.”

“Apparently, the things he said were misunderstood. They thought his statements not only justified media killings but even encouraged these incidents,” he said.

Panelo, who himself is under fire for being a lawyer of the Ampatuans who are facing trial for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, acknowledged that “more media workers were killed because they were performing their job.

“But many of them were also killed because of personal reasons,” he added.

Panelo also maintained that the Duterte administration “is protective of the interests and rights of journalists, especially their freedom of expression.”

In a recent interview before Duterte’s controversial comment on the killings of corrupt journalists, The STAR asked the incoming president if he loved or hated the media.

“Of course, I love it. Whoever said I hated the media?” Duterte replied.

“What I said, I can have a word that you may not like me to characterize media. But it doesn’t mean to say that I do not like them,” he explained.

He also said that the media “plays a major role in a society, in a community where the voice of the people is given importance.”

“In some ways, it would be a guide and somebody who would be your partner in governance. That is why it is called the fourth estate, because if there is no media, you’ll never know that you are already sinking,” he added.

Duterte also said that in his 40-year career in government, the press has sufficiently covered him, including his personal life. “I think what is left is the good advice that you would learn from a report that is true,” he said.

“A minus, of course, is the media that are being used as a mouthpiece for the vested interest of the oligarchs, the owners of the media outlets. It could be TV or print,” he added.

What he does not like

There is one thing he particularly abhors: “It is really the angling in the media that I do not like. That is how media can be rotten.”

“For example, I was in a Rotary Club meeting and I was there to explain to the membership why I say profanities. I was already explaining that my profanities were because of the environment where I grew up. When I was young, we were in the Davao squatters’ area,” he explained.

“When it was reported by dzMM, the radio reported that Duterte does nothing but say profanities. They were there and I was explaining and yet that was what came out of their report,” he pointed out.

Duterte also said he is offended whenever he is asked about the state of his health during press conferences.

“‘How is your health?’ This question could be OK, but there was a follow-up question: ‘Can you show a medical report?’ Alam mo, pagka ganon nag-iinit ako (You know, I am pissed off by that). Because that is a very impertinent question and it has nothing to do with my health at the moment. I am not yet the president and you are interested if I will survive or not?” he said.

He also expressed dismay about his critics.

“They want to make it appear that there is a qualification that I cannot meet, that I am not healthy enough,” he fumed.

He told his critics that he would leave them to think what they want of him.

“So be it,” Duterte said. “That is the reason, my friend, why I am president and you are not.”

More flak

Duterte, however, drew more flak yesterday for his statement on media killings.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat said Duterte’s statement was alarming because “not only does it encourage people to take the law into their own hands, it also encourages them to break the law for the wrong reason, circumstances that cannot be justified under any condition, especially in a society ruled by law.”

“The freedom of the press is one of the foundations of Philippine democracy. President-elect Duterte’s statement creates a chilling effect among journalists and threatens them to toe the line, or else. This is anathema to a democracy as it is this attitude precisely that has led to many journalists being killed,” he added.

Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque warned that “the killing of journalists is the ultimate form of censorship.”

“These journalists were killed by people who are scared of the truth. Moreover, alleged corruption by members of the press does not make them legitimate targets of assassination,” he added.

Noel Sabayan, president of Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Pangasinan chapter, said he does not believe journalists are killed because they are corrupt.

“The work of media is to tell the listeners or their readers the truth... Remember, any crime, violence or killing must not be tolerated and the government must exert effort to give justice to the victims,” he said.

“I think what he (Duterte) said that media men were killed because they were corrupt really came from his own thinking, but I hope such statements would have been avoided.

“I hope the government would open its eyes and heart in providing justice to victims of media killings, as many had risked their lives but no justice has been given up to now,” he added.

A group of college editors from Davao City also expressed dismay over Duterte’s statement.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) Northern Mindanao chapter said Duterte cannot fully grasp the reality that media killings occur because they expose the corruption and injustices in their local government and community.

“The Guild is alarmed with the possible aggravation of atrocities done against journalists under the administration of the presumptive president,” the group said in a statement.

Despite the threat, CEGP said it would continue to condemn any form of suppression of the freedom of the press.

“There’s no room for press freedom violation that would alleviate our aspirations of using our pen for the people’s interest,” they added.

Fr. Jerome Secillano, parish priest of the Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro Parish in Sampaloc, Manila, said that even if a journalist is corrupt, it is still not a reason to end the person’s life.

“His statement against the media is a form of threat and intimidation. Granting that there are corrupt media practitioners, the state and whoever do not have the right to execute them without due process,” the priest noted.

“It will serve Duterte well if he strengthens this institution as a partner for good governance. It is also a challenge to the media to be an incorruptible institution and be authentic proclaimers of truth.

“Duterte’s propensity to advocate killing is a matter that we Filipinos should be alarmed about. I would rather that he channel his toughness through a strict implementation of the law. He should make our justice system work efficiently and effectively,” he added.

Defenders

For their part, Davao del Norte representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III defended Duterte.

Pantaleon, Duterte’s choice to be the speaker of the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress, said Duterte was just stating facts that there are media practitioners who are corrupt.

Alvarez said he does not believe that the incoming president was endorsing the assassination of unscrupulous journalists as some reports indicated.

“There’s no such declaration – I don’t think he said it’s okay to kill media people who are corrupt,” Alvarez told reporters.

“It’s just like a statement, nothing personal, a mere observation and comment on his part,” he said.

Pimentel, president of PDP-Laban, said his partymate’s statement was just misinterpreted.

“Do not mistake or misinterpret the statement of the president. What the president said was that we have freedom of the press, but we also have to be responsible in exercising it and then given the nature of the Filipino, sometimes they resort to violence and the Constitution cannot protect you from violence,” Pimentel said.

“But what has not been stated is that these people who violate the law by employing violence must be brought to justice, that’s what’s important. So whether these are media killings, or the killing of a business person or the killing of an innocent person, all of these killers must be brought to justice,” he added.

Pimentel also pointed out that Duterte has been consistent in his position to impose the stiffest penalties against drug pushers, rapists and murderers and so it was clear that he does not condone the killing of any person.  – With Alexis Romero, Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero, Eva Visperas, Mayen Jaymalin, and Evelyn Macairan