May 3, 2011 (World Press Freedom Day)
Statement of National Press Club President Jerry S. Yap

What is World Press Freedom Day, P-Noy?

Grim grips World Press Freedom Day in the Philippines while the typhoon of fear continues and the wave of injustice to deaths rises.

With fervor burning it is desired for President Benigno Simeon “P-Noy” Aquino III to do more.

STOP! Put a stop to the threats and killings being perpetrated against the writers and broadcasters or journalists as a whole.

Mangled by vultures, other victims of the Ampatuan massacre.

Can you imagine when all reporters are dead?

REMOVE! Remove the Philippines from the list of the world’s most dangerous quick sands for those who desire to press the voices of truth.

Can you?

Only P-Noy has the most of obligations to give an answer.

ENOUGH! It should be enough right where ended the deaths of seven writers and broadcasters killed without mercy since P-Noy took his oath on June 30, 2010.

No more should be killed after Marlene Flores Somera was shot on the nape in Maysilo, Malabon on March 24, 2011, the exact date of the sixth anniversary of another Marlene, Marlene Esparat Garcia who was killed in front of her children there in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat.

It seems it is a theme or purpose to wipe out the tribe of the noisy for the truth about events in any corner of the nation.

The belief is it is not. However, the apprehension is compelling.

They say P-Noy’s road ahead is straight; but it looks like the traffic sign is confusion.

Is there really such a thing as straight path? Or it might have been laws whose eyes are blinded by dust of uncertainty?

Darkness has come and gone for five hundred twenty six times this May 3, 2011 since November 23, 2009 when the thick red spilled on the land of death, where it seemed it was prepared for the thirty three writers and the broadcasters, there in the town of Ampatuan.

It is a mystery that only one of all Ampatuans accused thereby has been read of the indictments when it is clear in the rules of the courts that this reading cannot go beyond sixty days since inception. Is this willed by circumstances, when accused who have no influence or money cannot escape from this reading called “arraignment” that when not done any evidence no matter how strong and compelling cannot be used?

The triggermen and their masters show insulting grins after killing more than a hundred journalists until the last day of Gloria Arroyo.

Is it not that the system of justice where the people themselves are the judge, in the manner of Grand Jury and Trial Jury, better? Japan started on August 3, 3009 its new system where the people are the judge because the wheels of old were as slow as that of the Philippines.

It has been a problem on how to resolve killings because there have been no witnesses willing to come out. Is it not good under the grand jury system that imprisons witnesses who refuse to talk?

The tragedy of the search for justice and the continuous assaults by the cults of Satan are so shameful for the Philippines before the world community. This is an evidence of how worst the impunity has become among those who claim their honors were damaged beyond repair or their sources of income deprived of them by the press.

This impunity has been caused by their unwavering belief that they are the law and their gold can fill in the hole.

Len Somera was shot on the nape while waiting for a jeepney ride to her workplace. Len Esparat was fired upon in front of her children as they were taking supper inside their house. The two Lens were both brave in their media raves.

The investigation into Somera’s case has yet to be completed. The public officials tagged by the triggermen as the masterminds even managed to come back to their offices at the Department of Agriculture.

The trial of the Ampatuan massacre case has seemed like worsened: only Ampatuan Jr. has been arraigned, the prosecutors are bickering, and suspicions of bribery in the Court of Appeals persists.

Is it true that there is no poverty if there is no thievery?

It seems hopeless to hope for the Freedom of Information Bill that should give more spaces for the road to dark secrets.

Is there still a chance that libel be removed from the criminal books of the Philippines?

This is the World Press Freedom Day in the Philippines.