TACLOBAN, Philippines – Journalists in Tacloban paid tribute to eight colleagues who perished in 2013, mostly in the line of duty, when the storm surge and heavy rains triggered by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) submerged the Eastern Visayan city.

As they lit candles outside the old DYVL Aksyon Raydo building, local journalists urged the national government to help media practitioners with their social welfare needs.

Journalists remembered Malou Realino and Archie Glovio of DYBR; Ariel Aguillon, Bombo Radyo Tacloban; Allan Medino and Ronald Viñas of DYVL; Rolie Montilla of the Eastern Times; Gregorio Caing of the EV Mail; and Dindo Ortiza, Leyte Samar Daily Express.

The media activity happened on the sidelines of the main ninth year commemoration of Yolanda. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged Filipinos to “remember those who were told not to remember,” alluding to long-standing local belief that Yolanda’s death toll – officially at 6,300 – was underreported.

‘Vocation’

Radio anchor Viñas had been reporting on the wrath of Yolanda  since the early morning of November 8. 

“Around 8 am, he was on standby to go on air once more. His booming voice was never heard again,” a Rappler report said. “Like the rest of the journalists in the region, Viñas and his team were prepared to mount a 24-hour coverage of the world’s strongest typhoon.”

Yolanda’s 5.5-meter storm surge submerged the entire building of DYVL. Its winds, which roared in at 235 kph, with gustiness of up to 275 kph, left the building with no roof. All equipment and furniture, including the 10K AM transmitter were destroyed.

Nestor Abrematea, publisher and editor of The Tacloban Star, said Viñas, Medino, Realino, and Globio died in line of duty.

Other journalists died in the aftermath, he added, when their stock of medicines ran out. Like many other residents of the devastated city, they could not replenish medical supplies and died from complications of their diseases.

“We do not know what will happen to us if we continue serving. They were reporting, di nila alam na sila din ay magiginng biktima din. Buwis-buhay,” Abrematea said. (They reported, not knowing they would also become victims. Our job can cost our lives.)

Safety nets

Miriam Desacada of Philippine Star and DYVL, the president of the Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders, urged the government to address not just the physical security of journalists but also their welfare needs, including insurance and health benefits. 

She noted that many journalists in the regions lacked the security of tenure that provides benefits, adding that many local outfits were too hard-up to provide these.

Despite the hardscrabble life, Desacada said many journalists continue to look at their jobs “as a vocation.”

“We’re like soldiers,” she pointed out. “Even knowing the risks, we go do our jobs because we feel our communities’ need for timely information,” Desacada said in the Waray language of Eastern Visayas. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists has placed the Philippines seventh in its 2022 Global Impunity Index.

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‘We cannot forget’: Commemorate Yolanda for the uncounted dead, says Marcos

– Rappler.com