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There's n saying among publishers, editors and reporters: "Fight like hell every inch of the way." That's what they did after a ruefully-crafted news item appeared in a website apparently contracted by Nuevo Zamboanga bearing the KAMP1 insignia castigating media for not interviewing Cris de la Cruz who was at the scene of the fire that gutted down the old Ideal Theater and the adjacent "Pichay" building. A month before that, ABS-CBN was also censured by Kampi's leading man for a news report not favorable to him. Five days ago, the same former soldier of God called up one of the TV stations urging a reporter to stop the airing of a news report that tended to show Kampi trying to buy votes through the guise of an insurance coverage of PI 0,000. A day before that, a frantic government worker exchanged unpleasant words with a local newspaper editor who politely refused to headline a story about a pro-management labor group (1 can't believe it) endorsing Kampi. Isn't putting the cuffs on the media for unfavorable news reports to Kampi and its stalwarts a form of press suppression? 1 have been in media for the last 36 years. I have seen the worse during Martial Law days when the defunct Times Journal
Headlined a man getting killed by a lightning bolt over highly-celebrated news on the assassination of Mayor Cesar C. Climaco. I have seen the ugly hands of martial rule when a story on the discovery of prepared plebiscite returns in one of the rooms of Lantaka Hotel was "killed" by Malacanang. Cesar C. Climaco called it "The Lantaka Affair". (It seems that Lantaka Hotel has many "affairs to remember". I will not talk anymore about the slapping incident involving a doctor, her husband and the doctor's paramour.) The point is, in a free and democratic society, media can't be censured. We will fight like a pack of wolves to preserve press freedom. We shall not be oppressed by people with tyrannical tendencies. A.M. Rosenthal, the executive editor of the New York Times from 1977-1986, asked these questions: Do you want a society in which newspapers have to operate under the fear of being fined to death?; Do you want a society in which newspaper offices can be searched without advance hearings?; Do you want a society in which the public does not know what is taking place in vital parts of the court processes?; Do you want a so ciety in which the police process is made virtually secret?; Do you want a society that is the totality of all these things? This election has been over even before it started.. No amount of "barkers" running around the streets like loco, no amount of press intimidation, no amount of lies and deceptions, no amount of money and promises, no amount of posters, billboards taller than my house, calendar cards, and what not, will change the tide of victory of the incumbent mayor and his party. I am a catholic. I remember during my first communion giving my soul to God for he is the center of all things, seen and unseen. I almost made it to the priesthood. But my wife was faster than the late Fr. Juan Sanz, S.J. in dragging me to the altar. If I had been a priest, I would have by now been excommunicated by the Pope for all my sins, venial and mortal ones. Politics and the military were neither my calling. My grandfather was both. But the Jaldons never complained about the lack of attention by the officialdom. He has a long street named after him. The Freedom Park in Abong-Abong where a sculpted soldier's helmet was erected by Cesar C. CI imaco was dedicated to my grandfather and those who
fought the Japanese in World War II. I stuck to media with a pauper's pay for the plain love of the profession; f did not throw in the towel, so to speak. But I give God what is due him. I hold on to him, the Almighty One. for He is the giver and nourisher of love and life. My dear friend, Cris, who failed to greet me on my birthday as I did him a day before he celebrated his, threw away his solemn vows to serve God and the Catholic Church for politics. What a poor exchange it was. I shall pray for him and his running mate, another very good friend, Vic, who chose to serve the people (a very over used and abused phrase that politicians keep on repeating)
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