LOWDOWN, TOO
By Jojo Robles

It is not President Noynoy Aquino, with his army of bodyguards paid for by taxpayers, who should be worried about his safety. It is defenseless journalists like Fernan Angeles, Malacanang reporter of the Daily Tribune who was ambushed last Sunday in Pasig City, who need to fear the violent forces at work in our society today and their firm belief that they can get away with literal, bloody murder.

And so I tell Aquino and all the others in power with him: If you cannot arrest and punish the perpetrators of this dastardly act, then you might as well have pulled the trigger.

I will grant that there is scant evidence at this point to suspect that the Aquino administration ordered Angeles killed, other than the allegations of the reporter's wife that “powerful people” may have wanted him dead because of his job. Angeles' wife has also said that the reporter has told her that he knows the people who tried to do him in – that is all we have to go on right now.

There is also the fact that Aquino's official – and officious – goon squad, a.k.a. the Presidential Security Group, has in the past harassed Angeles for no other reason than because the journalist writes for an anti-administration newspaper. Given the way this administration has invariably responded with strident denial, ill-concealed anger or stony-faced silence to criticism, how difficult would it be for someone in power to give the order to kill a critical journalist, with or without the blessing of Aquino himself?

When the few remaining critical sectors of the media are doing the criticizing of Aquino and his officials (which is their job, really, in a democracy), this administration has never offered to explain substantially or even to acknowledge their existence. In keeping with his somos o no somos attitude, Aquino simply ignores media critics, preferring instead to coddle and hobnob with his captive admirers in the press – who in turn act like their job is really to serve as adjuncts to the already-awesome propaganda machinery of Malacanang Palace.

The co-optation of the media by this administration (which already has absolute control over both the Executive and Congress and is supposed to be well on its way to taking over the Judiciary, as well) is, after all, the big, dirty secret of this new Aquino regime. And those of us who refuse to accept the say-so of Aquino and to defend his every action are frequently treated like second-class media workers by Malacanang – ignored for the most part, accused of all sorts of motives and even, when the powers-that-be feel like it, harassed and hounded like Angeles.

Especially if Aquino or his men did not have Angeles attacked, they have no reason not to arrest the perpetrators and punish them. As someone who has not exactly been part of Aquino's media cheering squad, I have a personal stake in knowing that this will be done.

The remaining critics of Aquino in the media (less one) cannot be blamed if they become convinced that while workers in the Executive can routinely be threatened with loss of their jobs and members of Congress can very easily be bribed, journalists like Fernan Angeles will just have to be silenced forever. And let the President never claim that it is he who needs protection from imaginary assassins while he is protected by his armed horde in his well-fortified palace, listening only to his cheering squad from friendly media outlets and their co-opted workers.

Mr. President: You don't need protection from us, who can only criticize you because that is our job. On the other hand, more and more, it seems like it is your critics who may need protection from you.

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At the end of the day, as Aquino himself loves to say, the people themselves (yes, the same people that the President says are still behind him in droves) will decide if it is the administration and its boosters or its critics who will be believed. And if it is true that this administration follows the daang matuwid and its critics are just malicious carpers, the people can be trusted to discern that, as well.

But what the people, including the media that is beholden to Aquino, should not accept is official inaction on threats to their freedom to express their views and opinions, like attacks on members of the press like Angeles. And if the authorities will not act on such an attack simply because the victim represents a sector of the press that is not friendly to Malacanang, then the ensuing condemnation must go beyond petty political loyalties and beliefs.

The chilling effect that the violent attack on a journalist – or any person who opposes Aquino, for that matter – should take precedence over the political beliefs of anyone. And any administration that will allow these attacks to happen with the impunity that many thought was a thing of the past must be called to account.*