Drilon to media: No blow-by-blow account on Zamboanga standoff

Sen. Franklin Drilon. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines –  Senate  President  Franklin Drilon appealed to the media on Tuesday not to give blow by blow accounts of the  ongoing  standoff in Zamboanga City to avoid a repeat of  the 2010 Luneta hostage-taking   incident  that  left several people, including  Hong Kong tourists, dead.

“I appeal to media to cooperate with government and not to give a blow by blow account  of what’s happening specially in so far as the position or strategy of the Armed Forces of  the Philippines or the Philippine National Police (PNP),” Drilon said during a press conference in the Senate.

“You know the Luneta incident is still fresh in our minds and the issue raised very clearly and seriously then was the overcoverage of the media, which included the blow by blow accounts of what was happening and  this certainly affected the ability of the police authorities to handle the situation and in fact had resulted in the unfortunate death of a number of  Hong Kong residents,”  he said.

“So we appeal to media – with some degree of cooperation without in any way affecting the exercise of your right to inform the people— but maybe you should make sure that such coverage will not prejudice the higher interest of resolving this problem,” he said.

Drilon also called on authorities to act “fairly” on the standoff, noting that that this was not the first time that the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) had taken the Zamboanga residents hostage.

But when this first incident happened in   2001, he said  the government was  pictured “weak” in dealing with the situation.

At this point, however, the Senate  leader praised Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar for standing firm   against the MNLF’s  attempt to fly its flag in the city hall.

“There’s no doubt, there’s only one  government and that’s the government t of the Republic of the Philippines,” Drilon said.

“There’s only one armed forces, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and one Philippine National Police. We cannot have another government even in Zamboanga so I support the firmness shown by  Mayor Climaco because that will show  that you can’t play around with our country’s sovereignty,” he added.

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