Police raids 2 media offices; press suppression feared

Less than 24 hours after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of national emergency and warned media to be “fair" in its reporting, government operatives swooped down on two “critical" newspapers in Manila after midnight Friday. Operatives from the Manila Police District (MPD) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) raided the offices of The Daily Tribune and the tabloid Abante, both in Manila. “They just swooped down, went inside, raided, got documents, I don’t know what documents. The last I know, they padlocked it," Tribune editor-in-chief Ninez Cacho-Olivares said in an interview on radio Saturday morning. Olivares said the CIDG and MPD operatives also confiscated copies of the Tribune from the printing press at the Tribune office in Ermita, Manila. She said she plans to question the move before the Supreme Court, even as she blasted Malacañang for claiming that the state of emergency would enhance democratic processes. When asked if the CIDG operatives gave a reason for the raid, she said, “They refused to tell our security guards. Basta sige ng sige, pasok ng pasok (They just raided and raided)." Initial radio reports indicated the CIDG-NCR raiding team included Sr. Supt. Asher Dolina, who figured in alleged efforts to cover up the “Hello Garci" scandal. Dolina was reported to be the police official who had a hand in the manufactur of a “clean" passport showing indicated former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano never left the Philippines since 2002. He was also linked to the raid on the house of former National Bureau of Investigation handwriting expert Segundo Tabayoyong in Rizal on August 17 last year. “Ano ba iyan? Is that what you call sinabi ni Nachura on TV last night that the state of emergency enhances democratic processes? Parang martial law na yan. Anong due process yan (What is that? Is that what presidential legal counsel Eduardo Nachura claimed to be the state of emergency enhancing democratic processes? It looks more like Martial Law. What kind of due process is that)?" Olivares said. GMA 7’s DZBB radio reported another CIDG team “visited" the offices of Abante at BF Homes Condominium in Manila, but quoted security guards there as saying nothing untoward happened. The publisher of Abante’s broadsheet counterpart Malaya, Amado Macasaet, heads the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), an informal association of print media in the country. Nachura, on the other hand, repeatedly declined to comment, saying he does not have the details of the incidents. He would only say due process is needed for such operations. “Well I don’t know about that, I would not be able to comment," he would only say in an interview on radio, when asked to comment on the raid. He also admitted he is not sure if media falls under the category of public utilities that the government can temporarily take over while invoking public interest. Earlier, the PPI issued a statement stressing the print media will not abandon its commitment to the truth. In its statement, its members viewed “with grave concern government attempts to curtail the citizenry’s constitutionally guaranteed rights, including the right of expression and the right to assemble peacefully to seek redress of grievances." “Such naked assaults on civil liberties should be condemned. Twenty-years ago, the people threw out a dictatorship. We should not allow – nay, we should resist – a return to those dark days of repression. We are not destabilizers or coup plotters. Our duty in the media is to report as truthfully as we could, guided by our best lights. We are threatened with closure, and those who fear the truth might temporarily succeed in stilling our voices. Lies, however, will in time be exposed," it said. “But enough of the counsels of fear and despair. Our commitment is to the truth. And while we have the room, however being constricted, nothing will bar us from pursuing our duty," it added.-GMANews.TV.