ALAM dedicates top action plan to World Press Freedom Day

ALAM dedicates top action plan 

to World Press Freedom Day 

        

ALAM dedicates top action plan 

to World Press Freedom Day 

 

           ALAB NG MAMAMAHAYAG (ALAM) celebrates May 3, 2012, World Press Freedom Day, by dedicating its top action plan if it is accredited as a partylist organization for the 2013 election and gets elected thereby.

             ALAM seeks to fight in the Congress of the Philippines for the establishment of laws designed to make the Liberty of the Press as "true and genuine."

         ALAM believes strongly that it is only by making press true and genuine that Filipinos can attain high transparency and accountability in governance.

         Total transparency and accountability, for its part, is the top element of true progress in economy, in making the people establish high moral and decency standards, in promoting unity among all tribes and all religions, in making the people intelligent and informed about all affairs or issues facing the country or a community, in making all people ostracize those who discriminate and oppress as well as those who steal people's money, in making the people proud of themselves, among others.

            Thus, ALAM will push hard for the enactment of a Freedom of Information Bill and for revocation of libel from criminal books, as well as oppose to the hilt any proposal for a right of reply law.

             ALAM will also push for an imprisonment for violation of press freedom.

            ALAM will also push to give maximum penalty to persons who attempted to kill, was frustrated to kill, or killed a media person if it is shown that it was a case of a contract killing.

             ALAM will also seek to punish a conspiracy to kill a media person if it is shown it is related to the work of a journalist, which punishment shall be slapped even if the conspiracy did not result in any initial act to pursue the conspiracy.

            Should you wish to read the "True and Genuine Press" agenda, it is posted below.

True and Genuine Press

            Alab ng Mamamahayag (ALAM) has resolved to devote most if not all of its manpower, efforts and resources for the establishment of a State where the Press is true and genuine.

        It is only when there is true and genuine liberty of the press that total transparency and accountability in government affairs is achieved.  

And when this is established, there will be equal and fair distribution through fair competition for all the privileges and rights among the small and big businesses, rich and poor entrepreneurs, indigenous peoples and those belonging to the major tribes, Muslims and Christians and people of other religions, and people of all creed or ideology.  

With this transparency and accountability as strong as the Great Wall, it is easily seen that the economy will be active among all classes to promote a number of transactions occurring a thousand times than the present, thereby ensuring more taxes to the government because each transaction entails tax earnings for the State.

And when total transparency and accountability is set on solid grounds, the educated public eyes provide a strong deterrence to discourage public men and women from engaging in any form of graft and corruption, from discriminating against any person, from oppressing any person, from compelling subordinates to commit illegal acts for the bosses to gain, from committing other crimes, and from doing all other illegal or immoral acts.

At the same time, this will grow the moral, decency and delicadeza standards of Filipinos.

It is the urgency of now for the Philippine society to try totally-free press and see the light of day to make the government an ideal government truly for the people, by the people, and of the people. 

 

To achieve an ideal government is to declare expressly that the State is sacrificing that perceived-but-less-important interests to protect the honor of public officials or employees and making the freedom of expression, of speech, and of the press as a matter of policy, a matter of right, a matter of culture, a matter of tradition, and a matter of norm.

ALAM will work for enactment of laws that remove imprisonment and warrant of arrest for any libel, perceived or otherwise, as part of a broad strategy to achieve a kind of government that is truly for the people, by the people, and of the people.

ALAM will push for laws that imprison persons for any act that restrains or stops the exercise of Press Freedom, especially if these acts are committed prior, during or after the actual intention to exercise the same, or even if these were to be done directly or indirectly.

ALAM will push for substantively huge freedoms to access to all information under the control of the government to reinforce the True and Genuine Press agenda.  

Aside from making the access a solid presumption and for the office concerned to have the obligation to prove that the data sought must be exempt from free access, Alab ng Mamamahayag will push for a total access to all information kept in all offices.

This total access policy includes scrapping even the abused “executive privileges” or “deliberative privileges” upon the principle that Public Office is a Public Trust. 

ALAM will also abolish the confidentiality rule between the boss and his confidential employee because history shows that this only breeds contempt, corruption and crimes. 

Under this principle, ALAM considers all acts as belonging to the people’s domain, except only those matters that are proven by the clear-and-present-danger proof that it would cause death to any person or an end to the life of the State, matters that pertain to the preservation of the dignity and intrinsic worth of the children and women, and those that clearly endanger the life of secret agents.

ALAM will also push for the free zone of all kinds of information twenty (20) years after they have been kept confidential.  This means, that no matter the confidentiality or secrecy importance, all information that are 20 years old or older must be open to the public.

ALAM will fight any proposal to enact Right of Reply Bill because it will work to restrain or control the exercise of press freedom by any citizen.

ALAM will also fight for the separation of facts from opinions in all published or broadcast items and to push for a law that will make all opinions as ones that cannot be sources of any liability, criminally, civilly or administratively.   

This is because ALAM subscribes to the idea that “everybody is entitled to his or her opinion.”  This is also a compliance with the Philippines’ obligation to the United Nations for signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that commands all states to respect and make free the right to express of their people.