Freedom of Expression in the Philippines Essay

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely agree to conscience, above all liberties. JOHN MILTONIndividual immunity and collective smell in the Philippines, Id say, is the most exercised and an unmistakable sign of this estates democracy. Our individualist rights and libertys, the most basic, the essential to the complex and critical ones specialize our identity as Filipinos, and the basic extension of our humanity. That need to express, to communicate, and to reach appear to one an otherwise without the fear of judgment or even wretched prosecution. We have the freest press, the most uncensored and unrestricted provisions on our freedom to express ourselves, to seek other messs take on relevant yields and roughlytimes solely so, because we want to and because we can. And when these are stripped of us, we resist. We react, and to some extent violently and rebelliously just so we can come out that fierce message that as a democratic country, with the col lective freedoms and rights tell in our charter, no one has the right to deny us of those rights and freedoms. just sometimes, to a fault much freedom can mean abuse of freedom. And restrictions or non, these freedoms arent absolute. One is mute liable to what he says, especially in overt. As professionals and practitioners of the press, they are responsible for balanced views and flavours. Slander, libel, false accusations and every other recoil with malicious intent is tolerated by freedom of expression. One cannot prosecute someone of something and invoke his freedom of expression, and expect it to give him immunity from the faithfulness. expression 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression this right includes freedom to bag opinions without interference and to seek, receive and sum schooling and ideas through each media and regardless of frontiers. Article 19 (2) of the planetary Covenant on C ivil and Political Rights affirms Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression this right shall includefreedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. low the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution, Article III, Section 4 declares No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people pacifically to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. only when it wasnt too long ago when the infamous Cybercrime Bill was signed by the president. It wear out flawed provisions that largely outraged advocates of freedom of speech. It awakened this raise not only to these advocates plainly to ordinary Filipinos who was suddenly faced with the conjecture of being denied of this freedom. It scared some. And now the Bill is on a transitory restraining order after much protest that involved hacktivists hacking government servers and websites. The presidents website down to other departments werent spared from their wrath. Rallies and demonstrations plagued the major government offices. dismantle the press expressed its dismay on the unreasonable grounds the standard imposed. And thus, this freedom prevailed.Liberty means responsibility.That is why most men terror it. GEORGE BERNARD SHAWHow many times have we seen major political figures get extraneous with it? How often have seen them actually pay for their wrongful actions?Seldom, if not never.Im not going to expound much on the issue of legal independence, though its another critical criteria of good ecesis that somehow connects with this issue. The influence of the executive and legislative branches respectively, to our workbench, though less people wants to admit it, is not unheard of. I would even go as far as saying that appearances aside, alliances between people f rom these three legs of our body speaks volumes if we want to chew out or so partiality, of arbiter being served, or of thejudiciary protecting people from the other two branches.Ex-chief justice Renato Coronas historic impeachment can attest to this connection. People have been talking about Coronas alleged alliance with GMA ever since he was prescribed by the latter, have sprouted suspicions and dirty allegations and from that stand elevation, when the chief justices public image is tainted, people will not just talk of injustice. Regardless of its truth or falsity, in their eyes, the then chief justice must no longer be a chief justice. thus came his impeachment, which was on the grounds of not declaring assets and liabilities on his SALN, which then comes to light a public officials dishonesty or honest geological fault of omission, we will never know. After that excruciating days of examining the facts and arguing from point A to point B about this and that in the senate, I go intot think it had achieved much but prove a point.A point that I guess is a starting step into dimension a public official responsible for his action. Its a welcomed change. But lets look at our former president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Somehow, shes still out of the clutches of accountability to her grave misdeeds in office. Her audacity not to resign when reasonable proof has been unearthed of her alleged influence on the 2004 presidential elections. Evidences, though illegal or circumstantial surfaced, or did you forget the wiretapping hello Garci scandal. Those tapes allegedly suggested that Arroyo ordered the rigging of the national elections for her to win by slightly one million votes against the late Fernando Poe, Jr.However, she indeed conversed with COMELEC commissioner Virgilio Garciliano, and it was a regress of judgment on her part and made the most talked about apology in television. Her alleged cheating and electoral sabotage induced public protests, to no avail. Several impeachment attempts have followed. Three separate complaints ensued. One in 2005, and then another in 2006. All defeated and trashed in the dwelling house of Representatives. Now what does that say of our system under her presidency? In October 2007, lawyer Alan Paguia filed an impeachment complaint against Arroyo in connection with the issue of bribery. Paguias complaint was ground on the revelation of Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio that various governors receivedhalf a million pesos from Malacaang. The impeachment case, as of the middleof October 2007, has already been referred to the house of Representatives Committee on evaluator. Now what? Is it sitting there somewhere in the House with dusts and was in the long run forgotten?Her presidency, shrouded in controversy, was probably the worse after Marcos, though in the same light, we cant deny their contributions in the countrys economical improvement. But accountability, CGMA seems to be immune to.We saw progr ess on November 18, 2011 after a Pasay court issued a warrant of arrest against her, pursual the filing of a complaint for electoral sabotage by the boot on Elections. At the time, she was in the hospital, so it was a House Arrest. The domineering Court had issued a Resolution enjoining attempts by the Department of Justice to prevent her departure from the Philippines to seek medical treatment overseas.But oh well, The House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. issued a travel digest allowing her to have treatment in Germany despite the Department of Justice hold departure order. She was released from hospital arrest on bail and refused to enter any plea on charges she misused $8.8 million in state draftsmanship funds during her term in office. These pile of charges seemed to hang up there again, as she is currently seeking treatment in Germany.Not to be insensitive with her health conditions, nor would I wanna say that her health conditio ns are just convenient lies to evade prosecution, but one has to admit of it being at the right place at the right time. Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder and was placed on house arrest. Well at least that is some form of penalization we saw. But then, Manila had to elect him as their Mayor in the juvenile polls. Now what does that say about us learning from our mistakes? How can we perpetrate a public official who had already broken our trust in the worst way possible and then elect him again and direct him into a position where he can do it again? I am but a keen observer and naturally has not enough professional or political mandate to be charge the lady of anything. However, it is my constitutional right to express myself though facts and informed judgments and individualized opinions.At this juncture, if one has to violently disagree with me and confront me in the form of a lawsuit (God, I hope not), I leave the universe of Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist, Maha r Mangahas. If any citizen is free to openly agree, but not to openly disagree, then freedom of expression does not prevail. An individuals option to openly express disagreement without risk of any personal injury is a key part of the definition of a free society.