From the Tribune editorial:
Gloria Arroyo had no hand in the drafting of the Charter changes proposal by her hand-picked Consultative Commission (Con-com), so the commissioners, led by Jose Abueva, claimed.
But the hand of Gloria in that proposed Con-com Charter certainly shows, not only in the suspension of the 2007 elections with no term cut for Gloria, but also in the big changes found in their Bill of Rights.
The sneaky Abueva-led Con-com, no doubt dictated upon by Gloria, went to the extent of limiting the freedoms the press and the Filipino citizens enjoy.
There is no doubting that this proviso clearly limiting the freedom of speech, of the press, of the right of a people to peaceably assemble and of petitioning the government for redress of grievances, shows the strokes of Gloria and her fascist aides in Malacañang, including a former newsman, Rigorberto Tiglao, who almost everyone knows, was in constant consultations with Abueva, who does Gloria’s bidding.
Just how did Gloria and her Con-com limit our freedoms?
Simple. They added the word “responsible” to modify the freedoms enjoyed by the people, which no law, but no law, can abridge.
Where the Constitution states that “no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of a people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances,” the Con-com’s new Bill of Rights on the citizens’ freedoms now reads: “No law shall be passed abridging the responsible exercise of the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”
Just by adding the words “responsible exercise,” Gloria, through her Con-com, killed the freedoms the citizens enjoy as their inalienable rights.
So who is to determine whether journalists responsibly exercise their freedom of speech and expression? Gloria and her aides? Abueva and his commissioners? Congress? The Supreme Court? Any goddamn government official who feels slighted by negative reports?
None of them certainly is qualified to determine whether the press exercises its freedom responsibly — and certainly not Gloria Arroyo, who, just weeks ago, dictated to the press what should and should not be highlighted, and slammed the media for their negative reports on her government, calling them “bad boys.”
Just who is to judge whether anti-government demonstrators are exercising their right to assemble peacefully for redress of grievances? Gloria? She who fashioned the calibrated preemptive response (CPR)? Her police and military that break up even a small gathering and disperse protesters even before they can mass up to peacefully seek redress of grievances? The police and military that stopped even peaceful demonstrators who enter a church to hear Mass, and denying them even their right to bring anti-government placards?
The Supreme Court (SC) then? How, when it sits on such important cases dealing with the rights of a people, such as the case against Gloria’s CPR? Then too, isn’t the SC, sitting also on the gag order of Gloria, Executive Order 464, that prohibits officials from the executive branch from attending congressional inquiries?
The Bill of Rights was precisely crafted to guarantee the rights of a people against the abuses of government. Limiting these rights means limiting their right to check on the abuses of government.
When that Bill of Rights, enshrined in the every Constitution — except that of Abueva and his traitorous ilk — says no law shall be passed abridging these freedoms, it meant just that — that government cannot abridge these freedoms. This means that government cannot exercise prior restraint. What is acceptable to the press is the recourse that one who feels slighted by news reports, can take action, which is for one to sue for libel, and even in this, there is already that age-old doctrine that government officials and public personalities, being in the public eye, cannot claim to be libeled by the press.
But in this country, despite that doctrine, even a President sues for libel, as in the case of Cory Aquino, and in the case of Gloria Arroyo, she sets her spouse and all her aides, as well as her personal lawyers to lodge multiple-counts of libel suits against their critics, all of which should be thrown out by the fiscals and judges. But as they have been so prostituted, the cases flourish.
Everything now fits, which explains why Gloria handpicked the Con-com, and why the draft came to be such.
Gloria is to stay on until 2010, with the same asses in Congress sitting in parliament, to ensure her protection.
There is to be no criticisms of Gloria as she and her thieving, lying and cheating brood commit any and all abuses. There is to be no demonstrations against her and her aides.
And they complain when Freedom House says the country under this government is no longer free?
UPDATE: More here from Ninez on CON COM's attempts to limit free speech.
And to stop all criticisms and all exposés, Gloria has made it a point to have her handpicked Con-com limit the freedoms enjoyed by the people — especially the press.
Who else but Gloria and her set of fascists like Abueva and company dare to cut off the freedoms and rights of the citizens, by amending the Bill of Rights to state that only the responsible exercise of the freedoms will be allowed by law?
And what, to them, is responsible journalism, responsible demonstrations, responsible peaceful assemblies and responsible redress of grievances?
For responsible journalism, it is, to them, for the media to write up all their praise releases, which are nothing but pure propaganda. The media that will come up with exposés, or negative reporting will not be deemed responsible.
For demonstrations to be deemed by her as responsible, they will have to be all pro-government demonstrations that will show full support for her. As for the citizens’ right to seek redress of grievances responsibly, why, all they will be allowed is to write government a letter, pleading and begging for the crumbs that Gloria might throw their way, if it pleases her.
A dictatorship cannot survive when the press is free, because only when the media are free to report on the abuses of government, as well as the government’s employment of massive cheating to ensure the top officials’ fraudulent victory, can the government be kept in check, precisely because all other government institutions, including the SC, have been prostituted and serve only her needs.
This was the situation in 1972, when then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. Media were under heavy censorship, with the military assigned to newspaper offices to ensure that no negative reports on his government would slip out.
Then, it was claimed that the press was the robust partner of government.
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