The Philippine Press
Posted: The Manila Bulletin Online
URL: www.mb.com.ph/OPED2004062812860.html
(Marcelo H. del Pilar, better known by his pen name, Plaridel, was the soul of the Propaganda Movement which preceded the Philippine Revolution of 1896. He founded the Diariong Tagalog in 1882 where he denounced the Spanish maladministration of the Philippines. In Madrid, he founded and for five years edited the La Solidaridad, the organ of the Filipino expatriate activists. The Samahang Plaridel is reprinting his editorials, as translated from Spanish by Guadalupe Fores Ganzon).
THE press in the Philippines is cowed, reduced to singing praises to those in power. It is not in a position to be the faithful organ of the needs of that vast Archipelago.
To what social entity can we attribute this condition? To the government? But this cannot be responsible, because all capable officials who desire to comply with the sacred duty of working for the happiness of the governed should be aware of the daily pulse of public opinion. The smallest mistake in the diagnosis will endanger the treatment and expose it to the justified malediction of the patient.
Neither will this agree with the interests of the country. To condemn the nation to suffer and to remain silent is not a good way of solving difficulties which produce – and have to produce – the occult sighs, the tears shed in the privacy of the homes because of stupid oppressions. Vexations are always oppressions, no matter what is said in sealed documents. Unjust vexations, temporary imprisonments which become permanent with or without court decisions, the mysterious deportations, and other threats to the security of the individual, to the sanctity of his home and property – all these evils produce despair among the Filipino people. Without a press to make known their grievances, the people cannot offer a bright future to the well-being of Spain.
A gagged press is not only useless in promoting national interests, but also dangerous, very dangerous indeed, to the prestige and future well-being of Spain, that remote region.
Because the natives of the Philippines cannot express their ideas in view of the law which suppresses them, they go only where there is intellectual freedom. Thus we witness how the press on the other side of the ocean and the Pyrenees talk of the faults which we do not wish to see, evils which, sad to say, stimulate effectively either the selfish or humanitarian motives of foreign nations.
On our part we seriously recommend the protection of public opinion in the Philippines. It is necessary to win the natives and to prevent their alienation. The Spanish government should know and grant the people’s legitimate aspirations, because instead of favoring the interests of the friars who collect, it should favor those of the nation who pays. Since the natives of the Archipelago have not been condemned to slavery, the government should know how to assure them the exercise of their natural rights.
It behooves us therefore to think of the liberty of the press in the Philippines.
Punish immediately every abuse committed by the press; use against such abuse every repressive method of punishment but do away with restrictions which, after all, are ineffective and will in the future bring about incalculable damage and serious problems.
Posted: The Manila Bulletin Online
URL: www.mb.com.ph/OPED2004062812860.html
(Marcelo H. del Pilar, better known by his pen name, Plaridel, was the soul of the Propaganda Movement which preceded the Philippine Revolution of 1896. He founded the Diariong Tagalog in 1882 where he denounced the Spanish maladministration of the Philippines. In Madrid, he founded and for five years edited the La Solidaridad, the organ of the Filipino expatriate activists. The Samahang Plaridel is reprinting his editorials, as translated from Spanish by Guadalupe Fores Ganzon).
THE press in the Philippines is cowed, reduced to singing praises to those in power. It is not in a position to be the faithful organ of the needs of that vast Archipelago.
To what social entity can we attribute this condition? To the government? But this cannot be responsible, because all capable officials who desire to comply with the sacred duty of working for the happiness of the governed should be aware of the daily pulse of public opinion. The smallest mistake in the diagnosis will endanger the treatment and expose it to the justified malediction of the patient.
Neither will this agree with the interests of the country. To condemn the nation to suffer and to remain silent is not a good way of solving difficulties which produce – and have to produce – the occult sighs, the tears shed in the privacy of the homes because of stupid oppressions. Vexations are always oppressions, no matter what is said in sealed documents. Unjust vexations, temporary imprisonments which become permanent with or without court decisions, the mysterious deportations, and other threats to the security of the individual, to the sanctity of his home and property – all these evils produce despair among the Filipino people. Without a press to make known their grievances, the people cannot offer a bright future to the well-being of Spain.
A gagged press is not only useless in promoting national interests, but also dangerous, very dangerous indeed, to the prestige and future well-being of Spain, that remote region.
Because the natives of the Philippines cannot express their ideas in view of the law which suppresses them, they go only where there is intellectual freedom. Thus we witness how the press on the other side of the ocean and the Pyrenees talk of the faults which we do not wish to see, evils which, sad to say, stimulate effectively either the selfish or humanitarian motives of foreign nations.
On our part we seriously recommend the protection of public opinion in the Philippines. It is necessary to win the natives and to prevent their alienation. The Spanish government should know and grant the people’s legitimate aspirations, because instead of favoring the interests of the friars who collect, it should favor those of the nation who pays. Since the natives of the Archipelago have not been condemned to slavery, the government should know how to assure them the exercise of their natural rights.
It behooves us therefore to think of the liberty of the press in the Philippines.
Punish immediately every abuse committed by the press; use against such abuse every repressive method of punishment but do away with restrictions which, after all, are ineffective and will in the future bring about incalculable damage and serious problems.
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