Letter to the editor: Kudos to Cebu media

Today (Sept. 21) we celebrate the 3rd day of Cebu Press Freedom Week and the 43rd anniversary of Martial Law. I congratulate the role of the local media on the occasion of the 21st annual Cebu Press Freedom Week.

Let us celebrate the local-media achievements in their quest to tell the truth during Martial Law. This serves as a great reminder of how important a balanced and independent media is for our freedoms.

Included in this letter is a picture. It is of my father Serging with the senatorial candidates for the opposition in the 1971 elections. This picture was taken moments before two grenades were thrown onto the stage, killing 9 people and wounding almost a hundred who were mostly the key officials of the Liberal Party.

This was the most blatant attack on democracy and free speech at the time, and Ferdinand Marcos was held responsible. The bombing angered the people against the administration so much that all but two Marcos allies lost their bids for the Senate in 1971. On September 21, 1972-43 years ago today - Marcos declared Martial Law.

Systematic persecution was one of the hallmarks of Martial Law in the Philippines. Along with so many others, my family was a target of the Marcos dictatorship’s abuses that resulted in the death of democracy in the country. My brother Serge was imprisoned, and my father and I were exiled out of the Philippines.

However, the first casualty of any conflict is the truth, and with it, the independence of the media. Without a free press, all our other constitutional freedoms are at constant peril.

But even during the darkest hours of Marcos’ regime, Cebu’s media, in the famous spirit of Cebuano defiance, consistently struggled to fiscalize the workings of governemnt. Despite the rosy pictures of peace and prosperity portrayed by the dictatorship’s propaganda machine, our media stood firm in telling the truth and in fighting for our people’s rights.

Heroes like Vic Abangan, Migs Enriquez, and the famous Natalio “Talyux” Bacalso (for whom N. Bacalso Ave. is named) risked their lives everyday by exposing the truth about the administration on their radio programs.

We no longer exist under Martial Law, but the need to tell the truth has not diminished even in the slightest.

At a time when many people - both in Cebu and elsewhere - are being deprived of their rights to shelter, education, livelihood, peaceful living conditions and adquate public services, I hope and pray that Cebu’s media will continue to exercise its role as a government fiscalizer and as an ally of the poor and the persecuted.

Congratulations once again!

Tomas R. Osmeña