OLONGAPO CITY — In an effort to provide not only security but livelihood to media practitioners, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) has proposed to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) the inclusion of media members in government’s land distribution program.
PTFoMS Executive Director and Undersecretary Joel Egco made this announcement during the 3rd PTFoMS Regional Seminar on Operational Guidelines and Protocols of Administrative Order No. 01 held at the By The Sea Resort Hotel here.
Egco, a former media practitioner, said he and newly-confirmed DAR Secretary John Castriciones have started exploring additional livelihood for media members.
“So eventually there will be MOA (memorandum of agreement) between the task force and National Press Club and Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and other media partners on how our friends in the industry who are in need of livelihood will be included,” Egco said.
Based on initial proposal, legitimate media members in the provinces who are in dire need of help will be provided with at least three hectares of land.
“That’s just one of our plans. We have more like education and protection for instance against libel. We are moving actually to decriminalize libel,” Egco said.
Meanwhile, Egco emphasized the need to cleanse the rank of media of ‘hao-siao’ or bogus journalists and to provide continued education for journalists about the highest ethical standards of media profession.
“We have to promote among journalists the highest ethical standards in the practice of the profession,” he said.
He said that out of the nine media killings that the PTFoMS has resolved so far, only two of them are ‘verified’ as work-related while others are personal, politics and love life reasons.
Egco said dirty politics, corruption and the vulnerability of the media profession were among the major contributors of media killings in the country.
At least 150 members of the media and Philippine National Police and prosecutors in Region 3 have attended the PTFoMS seminar which aims to inform the people in the provinces about the Duterte administration’s campaign against media killings and harassment.
“Our intention why we all gathered here is to really cascade the provision and operational guidelines of the task force,” Egco said.
Egco stressed the commitment of the Duterte administration to end media killings that placed the Philippines as one of the most dangerous places for media in the past.
“The task force is the finest creation because we are the first country in the world to do this,” he said. (PNA)
