On July 8, 2009, Buluan, Maguindanao Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu was called to a meeting with then-Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro in Manila to discuss the former’s decision to run for governor. More precisely, the two talked about a complaint by Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. that Mangudadatu was “hard-headed” (matigas ang ulo) and would not [...]
On the night of November 20, 2009, Fr. Alberto Alejo, SJ, of the Ateneo de Davao University received an unexpected visitor. He had just finished reciting one of his poems at the opening night of the Conference and Festival on Culture and Arts for Peace, and he went back to his office because he was [...]
Interestingly, the poem Fr. Alejo had recited on the night that Toy Mangudadatu had come to see him was “Sanayan Lang Ang Pagpatay.” Here’s the full text:
Maybe it’s because the end of the school year is nearing — it’s certainly not because I’m particularly popular — but these days I’ve been getting interviewed by students more and more often for their theses and senior projects. One such interview I wrote about here, and then the other day a media colleague who’s taking her master’s degree in journalism asked me to help her by way of sharing my thoughts on some issues that affect me as a journalist.
I had wanted to keep this weekend light for JamBayan, but the developments in Maguindanao dashed all hopes of that. I got wind of the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao Province around 1:15 a.m. on December 5, and even though it was an ungodly hour I sent a text to Secretary Jesus Dureza, Presidential [...]
“Let’s call a spade a spade,” lawyer Martin Delgra III, spokesperson of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Davao City chapter, told a few reporters before the start of the Club 888 Forum at The Marco Polo, Davao last Wednesday. “Let’s call it the Ampatuan Massacre. There is no intention to drag the names of [...]
SECOND UPDATE: NUJP’s final list of media casualties at the end of the article. Someone on Facebook asked why people — we journalists, specifically — are saying, “Stop killing journalists” when it should, under the circumstances, be, “Stop killing” – period. That made me think, and I had to admit to myself that in the [...]
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