Problematic Solutions of Du30 administration

President Rodrigo Duterte’s attempt to detain Maria Ressa and to censor Antonio Montalvan, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s opinion writer, is symbolic of his problematic approach to the press.

Although representing the highest ideals of Philippine democracy as head of state, Duterte is incredibly petty when it comes to criticism that it diminishes his ability to serve all Filipinos which is what he pledged to do.

In the commentary article, the Philippine Daily Inquirer played it safe and they even bloced off publishing opinion articles regarding any issues related to the Duterte administration, Bongbong Marcos, and Bong Go on their digital/online platforms.

Montalvan stated, ten opinion columns of his were never issued in the Inquirer online platforms, even though they were published in the broadsheet edition. The first incident, could be technical negligence or error of the editor, but this episode repeatedly happened – another article was censored.

Obviously, this was not an error for the editor or head but rather an intentional pattern was created to censor, break down, and stop writing.

To note, this practice has a predictable threat from the president itself due to the conflict of interest – Political Umbrage, a tool to prevent criticism against influential political figures like him and his allies.

Another example would be, Maria Ressa is accused of multiple crimes by the Philippine government. These include tax evasion, online libel, and the charge that Rappler is foreign-owned which is against the Philippine constitution.

Now, as a student who is studying under the course of Journalism, I can tell you in excruciating detail why all those accusations are unfounded and an act of neglect – who attacks against the work of a journalist.

But the truth is, no matter how much I research on it and how good I make Rappler’s case, it ultimately does not matter to Duterte’s supporters and most especially his administration, the vast majority of the Philippine electorate, and Duterte himself. Why?

First off, these charges are insincere and its primary objective is to slander the names and credibility of news outlets that have anything bad to say against the government.

Duterte is not concerned that Rappler is breaking the rules, he’s mad at Rappler for reporting on his deadly, pointless “War on Drugs” and he wants to intimidate them.

Also, Duterte will ultimately get away with it anyway.

Due to the complicated nature of his administration’s lawsuit against Rappler, the average Filipino will not have the time and energy to willingly research and inform themselves about the “case”. That surely results to having major consequences for the public's right to know and make informed choices up to now.

Indeed, this behavior is not only problematic but downright dangerous because it is, in essence, an attack on the free press.

Now, as a student writer who lacks expertise in writing and talking about political topics, I can tell you that this big issue sparked my eagerness to write more in a way that the present and future generations must recognize these dirty and deathly challenges and resist any attempts to censor or distort the truth. With this, we can guarantee that the general public has access to factual and objective information by maintaining moral principles and pushing for reporting openness.

Only by committing to truth and honesty will we be able to fulfill our roles as societal watchdogs and democratic defenders, this can also be applied to the great masses.

Press freedom is something that we, as a democratic society, need to be paranoid about because the minute we start making concessions, it compromises our ability as a society to maintain a view of reality that is independent of the meddling of the state.