NUJP backs I-Witness docu ‘Ang Iskul Kong Bakwit’

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has defended the I-Witness episode featuring attacks on Lumad schools aired over GMA News TV, saying the Duterte administration cannot tag the documentary as lies just because it does not agree with it.

The NUJP was responding to the comments made by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on the episode titled “Ang Iskul Kong Bakwit” done by GMA News journalist Atom Araullo shown last August 14.222

“The NTF-ELCAC should stop attempting to control the narrative by vilifying those that present a contrary view. "Ang Iskul Kong Bakwit" delves into the experience of lumad studying in makeshift schools in Metro Manila after fleeing their homes in the hinterlands of Mindanao,” the NUJP said in a statement.

“This is the same incredulous tactic it used to try and link the campaign to support ABS-CBN to the communist insurgency—the same misbegotten logic it uses to red-tag people and organizations, including us, with nothing but, to quote the agency's own words, 'gross inaccuracies and outright lies'," the NUJP added.

The NUJP noted that in the guise of quoting Datu Rico Maca who the government said is affiliated with Indigenous People Mandatory Representative of San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, the government only reiterates its previous lies that lumad schools are “terrorist training camps” where children are supposedly taught to kill when these schools were built by indigenous peoples themselves in the absence of access to formal education.

“We will not dispute the NTF-ELCAC's assertions as there is enough reportage and documentation by media and others about these. But we do take exception that the NTF-ELCAC has chosen to insinuate that the documentary, by going against its point of view, is somehow supporting the enemy,” the NUJP said.

“It is ironic that an agency that professes to defend democracy seeks to stifle freedom of the press and freedom of expression, without which no society can claim to be democratic. We stand solidly behind I-Witness, Mr. Araullo, and Ang Iskul Kong Bakwit," the NUJP added. —LDF, GMA News