Former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. speaks at the Media Forum on Federalism at the Club Filipino in San Juan on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. (Photo from the PILG Facebook page)
Speak out while you still can.
That’s the advice of former Senate President Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. to media, as he underscored their crucial role in ensuring that the country’s bid to shift to federalism would be free from partisan interests.
“Media should speak out whether you disagree or disagree with the proposals. The importance of this is you are exercising your freedom of speech and of the press while you still can,” Pimentel said on Tuesday at the Media Forum on Federalism held at the Club Filipino in San Juan on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
The forum was organized by the Pimentel Institute for Leadership and Governance (PILG) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) Philippines.
“Huwag na maghintay sa panahon na saka ka natutong magsalita [kung kelan] hindi ka na marunong magsalita,” Pimentel said.
[Don’t wait for the time that you only learn how to speak when you can no longer speak.]
He explained that the media should continue to assert for their freedom and independence to ensure that the complex issues country faces like federalism would be explained well to the public.
“Federalism, protection of the environment, all of these things will remain…principles that are being debated but hardly having an impact on the people [if this would not be taken up by] regular and social media,” Pimentel said.
“Media has a very important role in the dissemination of this proposal,” he added.
Pimentel said that the public should not just accept any attempt to gag the press because it would “impair the fast dissemination of ideas” being circulated among the people.
“Any attempt to curtail the dissemination of information should not be tolerated,” he added.
At the same forum Dr. Marivic Raquiza, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration (UP-NCPAG), urged news agencies to provide more platforms to evidence-based type of perspectives to inject wisdom into public debates.
“[What media can do is] to really provide increased platforms for this to come through,” Raquiza said. “So it’s not only show partisan looking-type of perspective but also these sort of more evidence-based, objective types of perspective that come through.”
But Pimentel reminded the media that the things they express should be “based on justice, based on reason so that the exchange will be reasonable and will not lead to violence.”
/atm