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THE MINDANAO CROSS
October 31, 2020
EDITORIAL
T
Beauties and the Beast
he passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law struck fear into the hearts of many Filipinos. It is not because the law is a new policy that confronts them; in fact, this is just a revised or updated version of a 2006 law against terrorism but with loopholes. Presently, the implementing rules and regulations have been finalized but not yet given to the public. Yet, without these IRR, there were already incidences of red- tagging by over zealous members of the military. The most talked about at present is the warning given by Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr. the spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC) to three lovely ladies – Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin, and Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray regarding their involvement with Gabriela – a women’s rights group with alleged communist ties. According to a report of CNN Philippines, the NTF-ELCAC was created by President Duterte to help curb armed rebel groups and to create a National Peace Framework. However, it has been tagging critics of the Duterte administration as communists, a serious step when viewed in relation to the Anti-Terrorism Law. Such a designation allows the freezing of assets and the listing of their names as terrorists. This action of Gen. Parlade of red-tagging the three lovely ladies did not get the support of his superiors. On the contrary, the President, through Sec. Delfin Lorenzana, warned police and military authorities to be careful in red-tagging. Without evidence, they should not publicize the names. Soberano, Locsin, and Gray only expressed their opinion towards the condition of women’s rights in the Philippines. The alleged link to Gabriela, the only group openly advocating women’s rights is incidental in their interviews. Angel Locsin, for one, goes beyond women’s rights and has been a strong supporter of local development. This was evidenced by her recent visit to the Caloocan Parish of Fr. Eduardo Vasquez, a missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) to give support to the urban gardening project that he started among his poor parishioners. But red-tagging has done harm to the administration’s erstwhile noble purposes. It has already raised the alarm among citizens that differences in opinion is not taken lightly by the administration (or its minions like Parlade). Should this be a precursor of things to come? Whatever fears we have regarding the Anti-Terrorism Law is slowly being built up. How about journalists? The process of writing about the truth, not necessarily in support of controversial moves against the administration, will put them in danger of being red-tagged. How will we declare the truth in this kind of environment? Where is democracy? +
is published every Saturday by the Mindanao Cross Publishers, Inc., Sinsuat cor Quezon Avenues, Cotabato City. Tel Nos. (064) 4217161 and E-mail Address: mindanao.cross@gmail.com | mincross101@yahoo.com.ph Fr. Rogelio Tabuada, OMI, Chief-Executive-Officer Eva Kimpo - Tan, Editor-in-Chief Edwin O. Fernandez, News Editor Gemma A. Peñaflor, Administration and Marketing Executive Valérie Ann P. Lambo, Reporter Julito P. Torres, Circulation Officer Karl John B. Daniel, Graphic-Layout Artist COTABATO CITY / ARMM CORRESPONDENTS
John M. Unson Ferdinandh B. Cabrera Charlie C. Señase Nash B. Maulana
NORTH / SOUTH COTABATO CORRESPONDENTS Williamor Magbanua Romer “Bong” Sarmiento Roel Osano Orlando Dinoy CARTOONIST Lourd Jim Diazon
Member: PHILIPPINE PRESS INSTITUTE The National Association of Philippine Newspapers
Entered as Second Class Mail at Cotabato City Post Office under Permit No. 91-01 Dated August 15, 1991.
O
n October 16, the Philippines joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Food Day to commemorate the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. The Philippine government marked the occasion with the launching of the National Food Policy, described by a Philippine Information Agency news report as a formalization of its commitment to end hunger and malnutrition. The PIA report, posted on its official website, quotes Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, head of the Inter-agency Task Force on Zero Hunger that crafted the National Food Policy: “To ensure not only a whole-of-government approach, but also a whole-of-nation approach in eradicating hunger, the NFP provides an outline of the national priorities based on a comprehensive understanding of hunger and related issues.” How? According to the PIA report, the NFP has outlined six key result areas: 1) review and rationalize existing policies, rules, and regulations related to zero hunger; 2) ensure available and affordable food; 3) secure nutrition adequacy; 4) secure food accessibility and safety; 5) ensure sustainable food systems, food resiliency, and stability; and 6) ensure information, education, awareness, and people participation. There is no doubt that all these key result areas need to be worked on to ensure hunger and related issues are adequately addressed. According to the FAO, approximately 14% of food produced for human consumption is lost each year between the stages where it is grown or raised up to when it reaches the wholesale market. More food is wasted at the retail food and consumer stages. Food system gaps like these contribute to the steady increase in hunger since 2014. At the same time, the FAO believes there is a need to empower food producers if we are to effectively combat hunger anywhere in the world, the Philippines Included. In the Philippines, rice and corn farmers have, for decades, been complaining about high production costs and low farm gate prices. Just last month rice farmers in M’lang, Cotabato held a rally to call on government to come to their aid after rice prices plummeted to P12 per kilo. Mindanao Development Authority Chairman Manny Piñol, who headed the Department of Agriculture prior to his current post, even posted on
I
NTERNEWS, an international media organization, is in town for its communication project it implements to combat disinformation, fake news and rumors from current situations obtaining from the Covid19 pandemic in areas of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The group is engaging officials of BARMM and local reporters covering the pandemic in the region. Virtual forums on zooms and interviews with government officials and journalists form part of Internews’ local engagement. I was slated to an internews interview which I confirmed for early morning last Wednesday. My interviewer tells me on our recorded conversation that some respondent-local journalists were telling her group that in BARMM, some health authorities or IATFdesignated make data available to reporters, but 1) “they do not even care to explain what these data are”; and 2) they are not easily available for follow-up interviews.” But in fairness to BARMM officials, the Offices of Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun, the Bureau of Public Information and that of Interior and Local Governments Minister Naguib Sinarimbo are very accommodating to media requests for interview, especially when the topic concerns the pandemic. Data shared on social media pages of offices concerned are not really “unexplained numbers,” so to speak. But some presentation of what is aptly called set of “Quick Facts” and these are often in the form of info-graphics in which factual narratives are usually abbreviated into bullet forms. Understandably on the part of the media, follow-up interviews are too essential, especially in the broadcast platform in which reporting is best delivered with a voice-clip aired along with the story. And it’s even more arduous in TV reporting wherein stories should stand firm and well with a “façade”—meaning, a fresh video of the news source, and this, most preferably, is of the highest person in position and authority in the hierarchy of officials. In the print, we don’t have much of such challenges; but we should be able to do our homework also with at least basic knowledge of arithmetic, algebra or statistics to be able to better appreciate figures—especially the points of increment and declination where curves are
Talking food
Thinking Aloud Caloy Bautista
caloyb@gmail.com
his Facebook account that some areas in Mindanao have reported palay prices dropping to as low as P11 from P22 for two years. The situation prompted the MinDA governing board to pass a resolution “unanimously urging both Congress and the Senate to review and make amendments to Republic Act 11203 which allows the unimpeded entry of imported rice into the country.” This was the same call made by the rallying M’lang farmers and many more of their colleagues across the country. RA 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law passed last year aims “to provide affordable prices for consumers, coupled with the goal of raising the income of palay/ rice farmers.” Yet according to the Federation of Free Farmers, while importers and traders realized a P57.5 billion windfall during the first year of the Rice Tariffication Law, farmers lost P40 billion worth of income. According to Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers, “the promised benefits have not come about, farmers are in dire straits, consumers have practically gained nothing, NFA is still losing money, and government has effectively lost control over the market. Only the importers and traders are smiling, happy to have been ‘liberated’ at last from competition and regulation from the NFA, and free to amass profits with minimal government intervention. “ If it is to be true to its task, the NFP should be a means to review and amend the RA 11203 to ensure that it really works to the benefit of the farmers as intended. Only then can the country truly be on the path to fighting hunger effectively. There can be no real and serious talk about adequate food on the table until the issue of empowering the food producer is on the discussion table. MC
Learning Lessons from COVID-19 coverage
PENLIGHT
Nash B. Maulana
nash.penlight@gmail.com
“flattened.” Back to my interview: The questions were rather simple as what have I experienced in covering the situation of Covid19 pandemic in the region. My answer was that there was not much of a difficulty in more terms, like obtaining data, except that one would occasionally experience some points where frontline workers would have to disagree with what one plans or intends to do. A follow-up question went on, asking what particular incident that might be in my case? I said in one instance, I had to go out of the city for coverage, and that one of the young men on duty politely told me wait for and talk to their unit commander, who was apparently out that time. I talked instead to his next junior officer who had his touchscreen phone and read to me in part the order from a higher authority: He told me he could let me pass for an exit, but I couldn’t be allowed-in back again. I said OK. I wish the unit commander were here so he may allow me back. Anyway, I told my interviewer that I did not take such experience against the young officer. But I learned my lesson to better understand the situation of our frontline workers. They, too, can also suffer much from stress—physical stress at the very least; and psychological stress at worst. Such a possibility is not too remote in the day-to-day experience of frontline workers, including reporters and some members of my family— which tends to lead us to also raise the issue of mental health, again--and again. Yes, I realized that the other half of the much feared risks of transmission is the peril of high exposure to stressful situations on the part of our heroes who work—and in many instances are dying—so others may live. MC
