Stand up to be counted

Lawyer Rudy Parreño called up and said he didn't agree with my column yesterday. I wrote that media should fight alone its own war lest it be misunderstood that it is not capable of defending itself.

Rudy said the issue of press freedom is not for the press alone but for everybody. That is true. No one has a monopoly of fighting for freedom. Dictators know that if they can bulldoze media, they can bulldoze everyone.

In the fight for freedom media is always the first line of defense. That is why every one must stand up and be counted.

Actually, I was just carried by some form of misplaced pride that, if I have something to fight, let me fight it alone. And in the fight, if I have to rely on others, I better not. It's wrong I realize.

The greatest tragedy in this world is when you ask people to join you in a fight and you are told, "Go ahead and we follow." Then when you turn around you find no one.

***

That vigil Wednesday night was okay. One thing good, many media people were there. There were other groups, too, aside from media.

Police Chief Pete Merced came but did not disperse the media even if there was no permit. No reason to. They were all very well behaved.

***

I disagree with President Arroyo's Proclamation 1017. But I support her campaign for Charter Change.

And I support her strong leadership but no media repression. No legal shortcuts. I want her to push through with the charter change. I also hope she clamps down on corruption. I hope she can extricate herself from being implicated in the fertilizer scam that are cases of plunder.

Will she join Erap?

***

I read in the papers yesterday about a real Iron Lady, President Ellen Johnson Sitleaf of Liberia, a small country on the west coast of Africa.

Liberia became a republic, peopled by the slaves from the United States repatriated there. This used to be one of the richest countries in Africa but lately because of corruption it became one of the poorest.

Last January 16 the country elected Sitleaf who vowed to fight corruption that made Liberia a pauper nation.

Last first week of February she went to the ministry of finance to deliver a message. The following day top officials were seen leaving their offices, fired from their jobs by the new President.

Sitleaf brushed aside legislative and judicial approval in her firing the personnel.

If President Arroyo does that, I think she will be supported by both Congress and Judiciary. When Marcos, after declaration Martial Law fired the "notoriously undesirable", he was lustily cheered.

But Sitleaf has an advantage. She fired the officials not appointed by her and no one can say she shared the booty of those corrupt officials.

How government is run always depends on the character of the leader.

***

We cry over the media crisis. This is nothing. A bigger crisis will hit us, if nothing is done by government. I am referring to the rice crisis and the subsequent food shortage.

IRRI spokesman Duncan McIntosh lately said, that China powered by its economic growth, will soon import rice heavily. In 2004 China imported only one per cent of its domestic demand but, given its population, this is equivalent to ten times our own import.

Thailand from where we always imported rice also lately said it would stop its export because the country needs its rice too.

What now? Our government is not interested in producing rice but only in importing it. The government said it does not have the money to subsidize rice production. But it has the money to import.

***

I am in contact with NFA director for public affairs Rex Estoperez who would call me up from Manila once in a while. I don't blame NFA. This office is under the department of agriculture which spent nearly a billion pesos for fertilizer in 2004, some P728 million fertilized private pockets for the election.

Individual rice consumption in 2001 was 90 kilos per capita. This rose to 115 kilos in 2005. Because of this, rice imports went up from 983,975 metric tons in 2004 to almost double to 1,849,843 metric tons in 2005.

The way it looks NFA is not interested in real food security. Their concept of food security is importing food not producing it.

I received only yesterday the letter for DAILY STAR from Rex sent by e-mail Feb. 3.

My topic at Feedback tonight is food security with Provincial Agriculturist Igme Tabianan and NFA head manager Gil Ibarra.*

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