We worry on attempts to intimidate critical journalists

“Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”
--Aaron Burr

Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It’s too early for opponents of Panay Electric Company (PECO) to celebrate even if the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe has already given the MORE Power and Electric Company the green signal to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO isn’t dead yet.
It is only fighting for its life in the surgery room surrounded by the best doctors who can still revive and prolong the life, or even save it from permanent disability and restore its main faculties.
PECO is still hoping to get a favorable ruling in the Lower House, where its application for renewal of its franchise is pending, before the expiration of its franchise on January 19, 2019.
While it has a myriad of available options and resources to wage a protracted legislative and legal battle to protect its interest and survival, PECO isn’t yet in the mood to raise the white flag.

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This could be the reason why PECO has refused to participate in the technical working group (TWG) meeting that would have commenced the transition works between MORE Power and Electric Company and PECO on November 8, 2018.
PECO has already made a stand not to sell its assets to a competitor.
It remains to be seen if MORE Power and Electric Company can efficiently serve the thousands of Ilonggo consumers without sufficient and time-tested ground technical resources and manpower in the territory that has been steamrolled and dominated by PECO for several eras.
The impasse is expected to prolong especially that PECO has disclosed its willingness to slug it out with the MORE Power and Electric Company all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ilonggo power consumers will be spared from inconvenience and stray bullets if Congress will expedite its verdict on PECO’s application for extension of its franchise and if the court will act with dispatch and alacrity once the imbroglio has been tossed there for litigation.

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As a Filipino journalist, I worry a lot that potential tax evasion charges are being readied and might be used to intimidate Philippine government critic Maria Ressa as well as other critics of the Duterte administration.
The threat against the lady journalist has prompted an outpouring of support on social media.
Colleagues from around the world have praised the founder and editor of investigative news site Rappler, voicing our fears about the state of press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
Philippines prosecutors have revealed that “they have grounds to indict Ressa and Rappler for failing to pay taxes on 2015 bond sales.”
The penalties, under the Philippine law, could include a fine and a 10-year imprisonment.
Ressa is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. She has rejected the “ridiculous charges” as a thinly veiled attempt to silence critical coverage saying such indictments are meant to “intimidate and harass” journalists.
We fear other enemies of the press might take advantage of the government’s aggressive reactions against critical reporters.
I have also written critically and voiced my opinion heavily against some of the Philippine Government's bad policies especially against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) which has killed thousands of suspected drug addicts and traffickers not yet convicted in any court.
The media landscape in the Philippines, which ranks 133rd on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, has come under extreme pressure since Duterte rose to power in 2016.
Founded in 2012 by Ressa and three other journalists, Rappler has cast a spotlight on Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs and street crimes.
Rappler has faced a barrage of online trolls and a series of government-backed lawsuits aimed at shutting the site as a result.
Let’s hope that harassment and intimidation against crusading journalists will not end up in assassinations just like what happened to hundreds of our colleagues since democracy was restored in the 1986 EDSA People Power. God forbid.