LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines—Legitimate and qualified journalists should be allowed by the government to carry firearms in the forthcoming election season, Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez (3rd District-Lakas) said.
In an interview in Unisan town Sunday afternoon, the lawmaker and known ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared his strong support for the proposal to allow media men, especially those with threats against their lives, to carry firearms during the campaign period.
“I will not counter or object that qualified journalists be allowed by the government to carry guns for self-protection. But the privilege should only be granted to legitimate practitioners of the profession and not those ‘guerilla journalists.’ The permit will only be given after a thorough evaluation of the applicants,” Suarez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
He urged the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police to only allow legitimate journalists and not the “hao siao” (fake) members of the press to carry firearms “during the election and even for a number of days after the polls."
The lawmaker made the appeal in the wake of the massacre in Maguindanao where about 30 media men were summarily executed during their pre-election coverage.
Ronilo Dagos, vice chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Quezon chapter, said that as a matter of principle, the organization has already rejected the proposal to arm members of media as a solution to the continued killings of journalists in the country.
“However, with the recent mass slaughter of our colleagues in Maguindanao, the situation calls for a review of the policy,” said Dagos, dzMM correspondent in Quezon.
Dagos clarified that NUJP members would be free to decide on their own whether to support the call to arm journalists during the duration of the coming election.
“The final decision is theirs. It’s their life that is at stake,” the broadcaster said.
He appealed to the authorities to relentlessly pursue arrest, prosecute, and convict the killers and masterminds behind the long list of journalist killings.
Last week, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. also urged authorities to allow journalists assigned to cover election hotspots to carry firearms.
He expressed fear that more journalists might get hurt or killed as the May 2010 elections draw near.
The call for journalists to be exempted from the election gun ban relative in next year’s polls was also echoed by Manila Vice Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso.
The Commission on Elections has already approved a total gun ban for the 2010 elections, implementation of which will start on January 2010.
Under the gun ban, all civilians cannot carry firearms outside of their homes.
The mass killing of journalists in Maguindanao bring to 134 the number of media men killed in the Philippines since 1986.
Of the total, 74 cases, or more than half, were recorded from 2001 under the watch of President Arroyo.
Quezon province had its own history of media violence.
In May 2003, Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda, a Lucena-based radio announcer, was shot dead while on his way to work.
In 2008, Bert Sison, a 60-year-old newsman and broadcaster in Quezon, was also killed while driving home aboard his car. He died from nine gunshot wounds; one daughter was hit in the arm, while the other played dead and was left unharmed.
This Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent barely survived an ambush while on his way to work in a radio station in Lucena City on April 19, 2007.
Last week, media practitioners in Quezon province displayed a moment of solidarity by staging an indignation march to condemn the massacre of local politicians, their supporters, and media men in Maguindanao.
