Death No. 1...

This morning, I was with a throng of journalists who stormed the office of the Ombudsman Mindanao, as one of our colleagues filed criminal and administrative charges against a Board Member of Compostela Valley Province.

Apparently, what Board Member Neri Barte did to broadcaster Roel Sembrano of Radyo Natin in Compostela threatened the very soul of freedom of expression. In fact, Barte attempted to curtail this right when he attacked Sembrano, with hir wife and daughter in tow, early morning of October 24.

Listening to Sembrano retrace the event created a picture of three voltures, ripping the flesh of a half-dead prey, in my mind. It is highly condemnable that the Bartes had to share their lust (or disgust) over their hapless prey, right inside that place called "announcer's booth."

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) said the attack is intolerable as "an announcer's booth is to a broadcaster what a pulpit is to a priest."

"Actions of public officials like Barte are dangerous. It is the kind of mentality that threatens the democracy that we vowed to protect. Such act of a public official must be condemned, not only by the media as a sector, but also by fellow public officials," the NUJP and KBP said in a joint statement.

Death No. 2...

This morning, after expressing unity for the "protection of the mandate of our profession," we went to see Mariannet Amper who was lying right where she was found hanging. Hers is a death so painful it challenges everyone's apathy; a truth that screams right in the face of the policy makers who met to talk about how to fight poverty in a posh Manila hotel while she was hanging lifeless because of poverty.


Death No. 3...

This morning, news about another death in the family came in. The text message read "Patay na siya kuya..." Reading it left in me a feeling that this one is no different from the others.


Death is as overrated as death.