Opinion: Media must purge itself of Red reporters

Opinion piece posted to the Manila Times (Jan 21, 2022); Media must purge itself of Red reporters (By Rigoberto Tiglao)

ONCE in a while, a news event reveals, as a bolt of lightning illuminates a dark landscape, the political stances of media men, maybe even their organizational memberships.

Take the news last week on the release of Juanito Itaas, convicted in 1991 together with an accomplice, Donato Continente, by Branch 88 of the Regional Trial Court for the 1989 killing of US Army Col. James Rowe. The Communist Party at the time admitted responsibility for it, claiming he was emblematic of US imperialist presence in the country. The Supreme Court upheld the trial court's decision in August 2000.

How did media outlets report this event? Their headlines as follows:

– ABS-CBN: "'Longest-held' political prisoner in PH Juanito Itaas released"

– GMA News: "Muntinlupa court orders release of longest-detained political prisoner"

– CNN Philippines: "Longest held political prisoner in PH freed"

– Philippine Star: "Political prisoner ordered released"

– Rappler: "PH's longest detained activist Juanito Itaas walks free".

Of course, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, with editors known in the industry to have been "nat-dem" activists, takes the Red cake, as it gave the news an emotional spin: " 'Longest-held political prisoner' now home."

In contrast, The Manila Bulletin, either with better editors or non-partisan reporters, reported objectively: "Trial court orders release of NPA member convicted for death of US Army Col. Rowe." Strangely, there was no report in this newspaper about the release of the assassin.

If most of Philippine media reported that the Philippines has had a political prisoner for 39 years, what would the world think of us, a dictatorship that can put a political dissenter in prison for that long? I hate US imperialists, but Rowe was murdered and not a casualty in a war.

Indeed, the reports by mainstream media so alarmed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) that it issued through its spokesman, Defense Undersecretary Jose Joel Egco — formerly this newspaper's chief of reporters — a detailed press release explaining the case. "New People's Army (NPA) assassin and convicted murderer Juanito Itaas has never been and will never be considered a 'political prisoner' but a cold-blooded killer who served his sentence under the law," Egco said.

Only GMA News corrected its misinformation. The others ignored the task force's clarification.

How can these mainstream media all report the same garbage, using the key term "political prisoner"? Only the Communist Party of the Philippines and its fronts have called Itaas a "political prisoner" since it insists that the CPP with its NPA has the moral right, that is, the political stance, to undertake a violent project to topple our democratic system. In fact, the CPP publications always claim that their cadres who were arrested and in prison are "political prisoners," even if they have been charged in regular courts for some crime such as murder and illegal possession of firearms. Any NPA killed in battle was salvaged, the CPP propaganda network reported, which really explains why there were "2,326 killed or disappeared" declared by the Aquino 3rd regime as human rights victims during martial law.

The reporters in these media outlets were simply echoing the party line.

It's a daunting project to disinfect our media of the Red reporters, as even their owners don't think it is a problem. Never has Philippine media been penetrated by communist cadres, or at least their loyal sympathizers on the scale that it is now.

Worse is that even fresh-out-of-college journalists seem to be romanticizing their role as secret operatives of the party.

The UP College of Mass Communications has been one of the biggest trainers of Red reporters, what with Jose Luis Teodoro — a founding member of Jose Ma. Sison's Kabataang Makabayan who would have been an NPA guerrilla if not for his fondness for Western luxuries — dominating the culture at that institution.

But not only from UP. When I was an editorial consultant in this newspaper in 2013, I investigated the articles written by a young reporter as it was clearly so sympathetic to a labor union on strike. And indeed many of her articles on the issue were lifted from the manifestos of that labor union, whom my old comrades said had a party branch. She's now an officer of the Red front National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

Deliberate or not, one of Communist Party founder Jose Ma. Sison's most effective strategies was not only to focus on the student sector — the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas focused on the peasantry — but on writers and journalists. Thus by the 1970s he had sympathetic or card-carrying party members the best journalists of the time — Satur Ocampo, Antonio Zumel, Henry Romero and the master of new journalism at that time, Pete Lacaba.

To this day, few know that the late National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera, who had a wide network among the literati in UP and the Ateneo, was a member of the UP party branch until his retirement, and for a few years in the 1970s shepherded the party's organ Ang Bayan, especially its Filipino edition.

Why, even the Communist Party issued a glowing eulogy for Lumbera, the kind given only to Central Committee members or national-level NPA commanders; "The Communist Party of the Philippines (and all revolutionary forces pay tribute to Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera (Ka Bien), people's artist and stalwart of the revolutionary cultural movement in the Philippines." Indeed, it is ironic that Lumbera was given an "Award for Journalism" by the foundation named after the fierce anti-communist Ramon Magsaysay. That's how deep communist cadres have penetrated our institutions.

Who knows how many second-liners these Red wordsmiths trained or even recruited into their ideological circles. Indeed read the articles at the Red website "Philippine Revolution Web Central." The website looks better than that of mainstream newspapers, and their articles, sorry to say, better written and edited. (One article in the current edition had the headline: "Sauron-like operations continue in Central Negros, terrorizing civilians." The Red reporter obviously is a fan of Lord of the Rings.)

No wonder the Philippine Collegian, which we taxpayers subsidize, for decades now reads as if it is the student edition of Ang Bayan.

I don't think there has ever been a similar phenomenon in Asia in which communist thinking has been deeply embedded in universities and in newspapers. That is one of the Republic's biggest obstacles in defeating this bloody insurgency that has plagued us for more than a century, and in developing the country.

The Reds will always mobilize their resources, especially in media, to put down any government if it is not in alliance with them, as the Aquino 3rd regime was.

Believe me on this: I was myself a Red reporter when I entered media in the 1980s, but totally rejected the Party in the 1990s when I found incontrovertible proof of the crimes it had committed.

Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
Twitter: @bobitiglao
Archives: www.rigobertotiglao.com
Book orders: www.rigobertotiglao.com/shop

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/01/21/opinion/columns/media-must-purge-itself-of-red-reporters/1830101