Lumad deaths: Veteran journalist tagged as Red ‘propagandist’

An award-winning journalist has been accused in an anonymous Facebook page as an “asset” of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) for her stories on the human rights and security issues faced by “lumad” or indigenous people communities in Mindanao.

Inday Espina-Varona, former editor-in-chief of the Philippine Graphic and currently writes articles and maintains a column on ABS-CBN News.com, has been the subject of a meme posted by the “Justice and Truth shall Prevail” page on Facebook slamming her of being partial on her articles on the lumads of Mindanao.

The meme, which was posted last Sept. 18, showed a picture of Varona with a hammer and sickle in the background and was entitled “Media ba o Propagandista?”

It was alleged that Varona’s series of articles tackling the evacuation of thousands of lumad following the deaths of tribal leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Bello Sinzo and Emerito Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development in Han-ayan, Barangay Diatagon, Surigao del Sur, last Sept. 1 have been one-sided.

In an e-mail interview, Varona said that she learned the existence of the meme due to her friends who tagged her on Facebook.

The journalist said that while she believed in free expression, the meme in question was “different” as it was posted by a page “that exists solely to tag people as communists.”

“I am a firm believer in free expression. If, on the comments thread on my FB wall or even on Twitter, you call me “communist”, I won’t mind that. People say the all sorts of things in the heat of debate…But this meme is different. It was a deliberate effort. It is on a page that exists solely to tag people as communists,” Varona told INQUIRER.net on Sunday.

She said that aside from her, Cristina Palabay, secretary general of human rights group Karapatan, has been targeted on the said Facebook page as an asset of CPP-NPA-NDF.

A threat

Varona said that she considered the meme as a threat, emphasizing that it was made in a time when there was a spate of killings and harassment against people who are being tagged as communists.

“The meme doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We have seen these past few months what happens to people tagged as communists… Hindi na ito kapital laway lang. We just need to look at Lianga, where they killed the head of a school accused of serving the revolutionary cause and lumad leaders accused of the same. So, yes, I see the meme as a threat. Hindi lang supporter ang akusasyon, propagandista talaga. (The accusation not only stated that I was a supporter but a propagandist,” she said.

Varona said that the killing and harrasment of alleged communist symphatizers and activists remained rampant under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

“The tragedy is, the same thing is happening — and with a vengeance this last year — in the era of ‘tuwid na daan’ under a man whose father was oppressed and later killed by minions of a dictator,” the veteran journalist added.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) issued a statement on Sunday condemning the attack on Varona.

NUJP regarded the meme as a “a cheap and desperate move to discredit a highly respected and multi-awarded journalist who has consistently fought for the rights of journalists and against unjust and oppressive acts on the marginalized.”

The journalist group demanded that an investigation be conducted regarding Varona’s case.

“We demand that authorities investigate and apprehend those behind these attempts to intimidate Varona and other journalists exposing human rights violations and other injustices,” the statement read.

Resistance

Asked whether she was pushing for the suspension of the page, Varona said that it was more important to address the mindset as to why such a page exists.

“Some have asked me to move for the closure of the page. I don’t think closure is the answer. It’s not just because I’m a true-blue liberal when it comes to expression. They can always make a new page tomorrow, the day after, the week after. It is the mindset behind that threat that needs to be addressed. There is no shortcut to that. The only solution is to slog through it, to resist being silenced, to continue writing stories,” she said.

The journalist emphasized that there was no other alternative other than speaking truth against power.

“I was so glad to see Twitter acquaintances, who mostly disagree with my writings, speaking up and calling out the low blow. That is the only solution. People standing up, speaking out. We can debate and argue till kingdom come. But there is no place in a democracy for threats or acts of violence solely aimed at quashing dissent.”

“Hindi tayo lumaban sa diktadurya para hayaan lang maulit ang mga ginawa nang panahon ni Marcos (We did not fight for the ousting of a dictatorship in order to repeat what has been done during the time of Marcos),” she added.