For his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. spoke for 1 hour and 22 minutes, yet not a single minute did he try to address the state of press freedom in the country.
This omission wasn't all that surprising. Most Filipinos found his ban of POGOs quite tenacious, and some of us hoped he would expound more on certain issues instead of merely backtracking on some of his 'successful' initiatives by Year 2.
And we waited… oh yes, we did.
But then again, nothing. It's akin to sending a message and being ignored—a classic tactic of ghosting. Ghosting in politics isn't unheard of. Promises like affordable rice and decent wages vanished when Marcos Jr. actually took office, much like any plans to strengthen the nation's press freedom. It's not like he didn't try, but in the end, his silence echoes louder than campaign promises in a political ghost story.
Critics say this regime is less allergic to the press than its predecessor. Former President Rodrigo Duterte greenlit the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which red-tagged numerous reputable media agencies in the country, as well as the signing of the anti-terror law in 2020, among many other democratic headscratchers.
In 2023, during the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) jubilee celebration, Marcos assured that he plans to improve the 157th rank in the global press freedom index, and while at present, we have now fallen to 134 (as of May 2024). His more ‘accommodating’ approach to the media may come relatively surprising considering the history that precedes him, but these numbers vaguely represent the reality that the media faces under his administration.
According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), since his term started, there have been a total of 136 attacks against journalists recorded. Additionally, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) recorded 100 violations of campus press freedoms from 2022 to 2023. Numerous libel cases have also seem to be the default move of politicians against correspondents nowadays. While these statistics alone validate these offenses, the administration does not seem to acknowledge them, despite repeated calls for transparency and protection for journalists across the country prior to his third SONA.
That is why as campus journalists, we demand that Marcos Jr. speak up on the current state of campus repression in the Philippines, for a simple reason: we want to function fearlessly, not in fear. Every journalist dreams of contributing to society by scrutinizing governmental actions and future plans, just like any responsible citizen would, and this can be achieved in more ways than one... but who am I kidding? Fear was always built in with a Marcos in the presidency anyway.
Nowadays, we witness the rise of vloggers and administration supporters masquerading as "independent" journalists, who selectively present truths that withstand fact-checking and omit inconvenient details. Meanwhile, student journalists face obstacles in writing critical stories about the government, often encountering intimidation tactics and having to tone it down, cause I mean, you wouldn't wanna ruffle some feathers, don't you?
This reaches upon the promise of safety towards the press in general. Ironically, being a journalist does not equate to being anti-government; in fact, it signifies the opposite. We refuse to be villainized; we are more than mere photographers and news reporters. Our freedom represents a perspective that could only be enhanced if the administration knew how to work with us.
If Marcos Jr. genuinely seeks to strengthen journalism in the country, this effort should commence within him. The acknowledgment of lingering disinformation from his presidential campaign, and past abuses, particularly the deaths of journalists during his father's dictatorship would be a refreshing stance to take amidst the human rights violations tagged along with it.
His cabinet should close loopholes in the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 and the Campus Press Freedom Act of 2019, revise provisions from the Anti-Terror Law, and prioritize the long overdue passing of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill. These legislatory endeavors would ripple towards ensuring that school publications have autonomy and sufficient funding to report independently, and schools in the country can establish credible newsrooms that serve not only their school's glory but also foster a critical voice for and from the student body.
Yet one can only hope, because if he can go on another SONA without even mentioning press freedom, then this only proves that the campus press remains at the verge of uncertainty. Some would say that it ‘might not be his priority… for now”, but with the alarming attacks towards our people in the field, what can be deemed as a priority? His silence isn't neutrality—it's cowardly complicity in ghosting his nation.
While Marcos Jr.'s administration grapples with disinformation and ‘hyped power moves’, the SONA squandered his chances of clearing up his reputation with the Philippine media. And while journalists in the country do not expect to be spoon-fed by his administration, we do not want to live in a chokehold either. The expectation is basically air at this point. We refuse silence; our right to defend truth and to practice democracy is non-negotiable. The press shall continue and this exclusion, cannot leave us silenced like ghosts.