Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (FILE PHOTO)
Journalists have found an ally in a lawmaker who vowed to push for the passage of a bill exempting journalists as witnesses in antinarcotics operations.
This provision is among the proposed amendments to Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, that the House dangerous drugs committee is tackling.
“The amendment to RA 9165 that we are proposing includes the provision to exclude media as a witness in drug raids and operations and I am for it. It is still being discussed in the technical working group (TWG),” said Rep. Robert Ace Barbers., chair of the House dangerous drugs panel.
Barbers assured that he was in favor of amending RA 9165 to exclude the media as witnesses in all drug raids, as the media’s job was to tell the truth but not put themselves in harm’s way.
“I am supporting it because journalists are not trained to be part of dangerous police operations and it may be too risky for them. Their job should be limited only to exposing the truth as events unfold, but not to the extent of exposing themselves to danger,” he said.
Barbers made the remarks after the Presidential Task Force on Media Security and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines called on Congress to amend RA 9165 and exempt members of the press from serving as witnesses in antinarcotics operations.
The amendment was proposed after a newspaper photojournalist who was a witness to several antidrug operations was ambushed. The ambush wounded him and killed his nephew.
Among many other proposed amendments to RA 9165, Barbers said the TWG under his panel was discussing House Bill (HB) No. 572 filed by the three-member Makabayan bloc last year.
HB 572 sought to exempt journalists as witnesses in antinarcotics operations, such as during the physical inventory and taking of photographs of seized illegal drugs.
Barbers pointed out that in the 18th Congress, this proposed amendment was filed in July 2019 as HB 2995 by the Makabayan bloc.
The amendment was included in the consolidated HB 7814 that was passed by the House on final reading in March 2021.