Freedom of Speech

"DE LIMA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT LICENSE TO RUIN CREDIBILITY"(sic).  I could not agree more!  I would just like to understand though whether this statement is really unadulterated or is it just another attempt at bending “morality” where it is convenient.

I seem to remember not long ago the same senator effectively smearing the credibility of some of her colleagues in the government and its institutions, all the while exercising her constitutional right to “Freedom of Speech.”  I have heard claims coming from this Senator about how sure she is that President Duterte is behind DDS and EJK.  In fact, she is so sure that she’s even gone to great lengths of humoring international media with interviews and clamoring for international intervention on our domestic affairs, including imposing sanctions on our nation, all because of the ongoing “government-inspired” EJK.  I have also heard her say, and she is definitely sure about it too, about DOJ fabricating lies and stories against her.  Then there are also statements from her destroying the credibility of witnesses against her, long before they can even be heard.  According to her, some have even been tortured to say things against her -- even before they can ever speak.  All these have resulted to the smearing of our credibility as a sovereign nation spoken under the premise of "Freedom of Speech" and amplified so greatly and sensationally by no other than the media.

This is not to take sides.  The administration has also done its fair share of abusing “Freedom of Speech,” all too conveniently to their advantage, again with the help of the media.  What I am simply just trying to point out here is that freedom of speech is indeed not a license to ruin anyone’s credibility.  Anyone who advocates this, especially at the national and international stage, should “PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH!”

As for the media outlets, it is becoming more and more obvious that you are always there wherever there is news that presents an opportunity to be sensationalized.  This story is a proof, particularly in the Philippines, that you have outlived your relevance to the society.  The media has been relegated to nothing more than an established institution trying so hard to keep up with what’s trending on social media to maintain its perceived relevance.  The model of “yellow press,” that has arguably played a major role in the Spanish-American War as well as all the other modern-day conflicts like the middle-eastern wars, has now come back biting the media in the ass.  You have played the “sensationalism” card to practically every news article you publish to build up hype and controversy so it sells more.  It has been the model followed for more than a century now.  Well, guess what?  Social Media has beaten you in your own game.  If you really want to maintain relevance, stop playing “yellow journalism” and stop jumping in on the social media bandwagon – social media is our space, not yours! 

There is just too much good news out there that is getting buried in all the noise, due mainly to the media over-sensationalizing irrelevant issues.  Go out there and check the pulse of the Filipino community first hand.  The Filipino expat workforce feels better supported and more at peace.  There are no more incidents of “laglag bala,” no more incidents of ransacked “balik-bayan boxes,” no more cumbersome requirements of OEC for OFWs returning to their job sites. “Bayanihan” is very much alive.  Local and national governments, including the public, are more proactive and cooperative during calamity preparations.  More relief goods are being distributed at times of calamities even before international relief aids reach our shores.  More and more Filipinos are saying that the streets are safer.  The number of petty crimes has gone down according to the data from PNP.  Filipino employees in the tens of thousands have already been regularized in recent weeks.  The businesses are booming.  More and more investments are being pledged.  People in the business community remain very hopeful and positive in the Philippines and the economic environment it provides.  Filipinos feel more empowered, are more hopeful and are voluntarily embracing a more disciplined and dignified way of life.  More and more parents are taking responsibility, forcibly or otherwise, on the upbringing and of the future of their children.   Even the younger generations are now finding inspiration and hope for a better tomorrow.  Most importantly, illegal drugs no longer litter our streets.  With all these things that take center stage on the social media airwaves, I cannot help but ask, where the hell are all these in actual media reports?  Does the media really honestly believe that this report, "DE LIMA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT LICENSE TO RUIN CREDIBILITY" actually deserves more airtime than all accomplishments the government, collectively, has achieved in the last 100 days or so?  If you do, then you deserve a Pulitzer Prize in recognition of your embodiment of the ideals of “yellow journalism,” made famous by the great Joseph Pulitzer himself.

Nowadays, you really cannot tell which reports to believe or not.  But at least in the Philippines, one thing is very clear -- change is happening.  The government is cleaning, or at least appears to be cleaning, its own backyard of corruption.  The law enforcement is weeding its own ranks of scalawags.  Heck, even the drug rings are clearing their own houses of loose assets viewed as potential liabilities – a cleaning project that compounds the numbers reported as extra-judicial killings.  Do these changes really point towards a better Philippines, or a far worse one?  Will it usher a new era of peace and development in our country, or will it completely completely suck us in to a black hole of total  and utter insignificance?  Only time will tell.  We have to give these changes time to unfold, if we want to truly see where they take us.  Until then, we can never truly know.  But this I know for sure -- any time and effort put into spring cleaning can only result to something good.  Many Filipinos would swear that they already feel the benefits of it and it’s only just begun.  Maybe it is time media does a spring cleaning of its own.  And maybe, just maybe, it gets back to the path of relevance.