Dispatched

Judge Teofilo Tambag of the Caingan, Masbate RTC acted with remarkable dispatch in withdrawing the arrest warrant issued against local broadcasters who were both red-tagged and accused of murder by the provincial prosecutor. Considering the locality where he serves, this decision required some courage and a large amount of integrity.

Actually, the warrant was withdrawn earlier. But the provincial prosecutor filed a motion for reconsideration. At the hearing, the witnesses presented by the prosecution performed badly, offering contradictory statements and fudging the facts. On close review, the sworn statements filed by the supposed witnesses to the murder case were found flawed. There was no way the case filed by the provincial prosecutor could stand.

To recall, several local journalists in Masbate were accused of being members of the CPP-NPA and participants in the murder of a farmer. It so happened the accused journalists were all members of the Masbate Quad Media Society Inc., a professional association investigating graft and corruption in projects undertaken by the provincial government.

On the basis of their findings, the journalists filed a well-documented complaint for plunder with the ombudsman. The ombudsman has yet to act on the complaint. In comparable cases, local executives have been summarily suspended by the ombudsman while the case is being processed.

The accused journalists also brought their plight before the Presidential Task Force on Media Security. Head of the Task Force, Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez, called the attention of the provincial prosecutor to take great care in red-tagging journalists.

This case in Masbate resembles many other instances where journalists are red-tagged and then charged with crimes attributed to the communist rebels. In many of these other cases, the crimes charged often failed in court due to flimsy evidence. But the objective of harassing journalists who happen to annoy the local powerbrokers is usually achieved.

Serious steps have to be taken by the authorities to curb this pattern of harassment where criminal cases are filed against inquiring journalists on the basis of flimsy evidence. The pattern has been clear.

Spurious cases have been, and continue to be, filed against practicing journalists – especially those involved in investigating corruption in their localities. Provincial journalists, for obvious reasons, have been particularly vulnerable. They are more exposed to the whims of the powers-that-be in the localities. Those local potentates often exercise great influence over the fiscals and courts in the remote communities.

To help curb this pattern of harassment, Gutierrez recommends that the Masbate journalists file a case at the Department of Justice against the provincial prosecutor for red-tagging and malicious prosecution. This should help curb the propensity of some prosecutors to file cases against journalists on the basis of the flimsiest evidence.

It should help if the ombudsman would act with greater dispatch on the graft and plunder complaints filed by the brave Masbate journalists against officials of the provincial government. The longer the complaints are left idle at the ombudsman, the greater the attraction for the subjects of the complaint to harass those who filed them in the hope of forcing journalists to withdraw the filings.

A free and vigilant press is a social good. Everyone should contribute to ensuring vibrant journalism thrives – especially in a society burdened with so much corruption.

Celebrity

From afar, Alice Guo, the dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac strikes me as a warm and cheerful personality. Whatever her real nationality may be, she is clearly charismatic.

When she was captured in Indonesia last week, Guo smiled through what should be a grim process of repatriation. She interacted with her captors with a certain ease of manner. Video clips show her putting her arms around the policewomen sent to secure her. She put on a goofy pose in a photo with the secretary of the Interior and the chief of the PNP.

Our dour and cheerless politicians were not happy with what they saw. They faulted the officials sent to fetch the fugitive for treating her with such casualness. They wanted our police officials to treat Guo in the manner they imagine all accused of crimes ought to be treated: with tiger faces and grim demeanor.

One senator found it necessary to remind our law enforcers and the general public that the extradited Guo was a suspected criminal rather than a celebrity. But the two are not irreconcilable. Criminals could be celebrities as well.

I recall, many years ago, how a petty criminal nicknamed Ben Tumbling transformed into something more than a celebrity. He was held as some sort of hero for the common folk. Stories about his generosity to the poor circulated widely. In my hometown of Malabon, traffic policemen built small fortresses in street corners for fear of being waylaid by Ben Tumbling.

When the small-time hood was finally shot dead, thousands of ordinary folk gathered to honor him. I went to his wake to personally experience the mystique that surrounded the man. The streets around his home were crammed with people who seemed to be expecting Ben Tumbling to resurrect. An air of religiosity pervaded.

The crowd was so thick, I failed to reach the door of the lean-to where his coffin was. I also failed to interview any of his relatives, contenting myself to conversations with his neighbors who repeated the urban legends that made Ben seem larger than life.

By comparison, the fan behavior towards Alice Guo is mild.