A Social Weather Stations survey finds that 51% of Filipinos agree with the proposition that “it is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration even if the information is true.”

Now, what to make of that?

That’s not an easy question, and more so for someone roused with it from post-prandial torpor, which, as torpors go in these fortnight-long lockdowns, can be blissfully escapist, though unhealthful.

That’s exactly the situation I found myself in on the first weekend of my community’s second lockdown. But, fully engaged and restored to wakeful conviction, I still didn’t know what to say; the finding only raised more questions for me.  

What in the first place did SWS want to know? Indeed, what did it expect to know from its survey that had not been already known to anyone expected to be paying constant attention to the state of their own freedoms and rights? How could there be any doubt that the press is in danger when from the very beginning the regime has held the press in its iron hand, under threat of being squashed degree-by-degree for every misbehavior?

In fact, at around the time SWS took the poll (July 3-6), two major squashings had occurred or were occurring. On June 15 a trial court pronounced Rappler founder and CEO Maria Ressa guilty of cyber libel, under a new law applied retroactively. That’s only one of 8 implausible cases brought against her, including violations of tax and securities laws.

The previous month, ABS-CBN, the widest-reaching broadcast network, had been ordered to shut down its franchised operations while its application for the renewal of its franchise, normally a mere formality, was still being taken up at committee hearings in the Lower House. Three weeks later the committee denied the application, disregarding the certifications and testimonies given by state regulatory agencies clearing ABS-CBN of all the accusations thrown at it.

Still, as arbitrary and whimsical as it was, the verdict came as no surprise, and neither in Ressa’s case. Duterte had made no secret of his displeasure with both ABS-CBN and Rappler and openly repeatedly warned he was going after them. It should be no surprise, too, that a big chill has blown across the media profession, as evidenced by its rather gingerly practice.

So, what was the point of the SWS survey?

I wonder if the phrasing of the survey question might not be unfair – if it did not tend to entrap anyone affirming the proposition into giving the sense, knowingly or not, that they were discouraging the media from publishing or airing news, even if truthful (and if I may add, opinion, too, even if fair), that might displease the administration.

It’s dangerous, so better watch it! – surely that sort of prescription is counterproductive; it serves only to deepen the anxiety of the media, not to say the general public, who relies on them, as its watchdog, to serve its Constitutional right to know. It is definitely the wrong message to send.

If the news media had allowed themselves to be cowed into sufficient silence, how could the people have known of the grand theft of the money they had been paying in taxes and premiums to Philhealth? How could they have realized beyond a doubt that the regime running their country possessed the worst combination of leadership qualities – incompetence and incapacity, not to mention ill will? Indeed, how could the people have known all that at the perfect time, amid a pandemic, in a perfect storm?        

Avoiding being seen as second-guessing SWS, I kept those thoughts to myself, and that proved prudent – lockdowns have a way of teaching patience. Presently, things began to clear up for me, thanks to the President’s spokesman, Harry Roque.

With his reflex, pat, sycophantic, and thus predictable, response to the SWS finding, Roque declared, “The Duterte administration continues to respect freedom of speech and freedom of the press.” Democracy being antithetical to everything Duterte is, such platitudes count for nothing, and parroted by Harry Roque, they count for even less, although, even contrariwise, he serves a purpose sometimes.

Roque is a flip-flopper of the most flagrant type. He had been a freedom and rights lawyer before climbing onto Duterte’s authoritarian bandwagon and joining old foes like the Marcoses and the Arroyos. For reasons suspected as having to do with his avid opportunism, he fell out with Duterte, but soon enough was back, and remains, in favor. His spokesmanship is now marked by fist pumps and some hip-throwing dance steps, tricks calculated possibly to ensure a full tenure this second time around.

By sheer disreputable reputation, he is bound to provoke. In this case, he drew more or less common reactions, urging that everything be told and told like it is, regardless of how the Duterte regime might feel about it.

So much for second-guessing SWS: 51% is proving to be an inspiring number from which to mount an effort to rebuild the fire of press freedom back to its old wattage. After all, that 51% represents Filipinos clear-eyed enough to recognize, and say so openly, that press freedom is at risk of extinguishment. The attitude seems to me to reflect a readiness to do something about it.

Others (30%) see something else, because their brains are wired wrong, or, if they see right, are too self-interested to care – it’s the category in which Roque belongs. Still, right-seeing others (18%), although reluctant to say what they see, may be sensible to conscience pricking.

Given that Duterte used to poll as high as 90%, things must be looking up. – Rappler.com