Aftershocks from 1017

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor ERIC T. LORETIZO Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

En garde. Watch out. Take care. Be prepared.

The words are all addressed to the members of media in this country, despite the supposed lifting of the Proclamation No. 1017, that had declared a State of National Emergency in the Philippines.

One of the first incidents that had occurred after the declaration was the raid and "monitoring" of the offices of the Daily Tribune, the newspaper that had been consistently critical of the administration. Policemen entered the editorial offices of the newspaper and announced that it would henceforth be supervised by their agency who would see to it that what the paper would publish are only those reports that meet the "guidelines" yet to be produced by police censors.

Fortunately for the Tribune, and for Philippine media as a whole, the incident immediately caught international attention and condemnation from organizations of journalists everywhere. Their reaction must also have made things a bit easier for others, not media practitioners, also affected by the declaration.

Now it appears that it was a false sense of relief that media people felt after the so-called lifting of the Proclamation. Although the guarding policemen were taken off the Tribune beat, reports yesterday said that the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism was about to be searched, also by the police, and five of its writers targeted for the filing of inciting to sedition charges. The reason was reportedly the publication by the PCIJ of the complete transcript of the Hello Garci tapes sometime in the middle of last year.

Ironically, but the present administration must have forgotten this, it had been the exposés and fearless writings of the very same PCIJ members that had given President Arroyo and her supporters the ammunitions to ease then President Joseph Estrada out of his office.

But now the PCIJ, and all media practitioners in the country can only warn each other: Watch out. Aftershocks from 1017 could be even stronger.*