LEGAZPI CITY—Participants to the two-day tri-media summit here from 21 media outfits in five provinces of Bicol have slammed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Presidential Proclamation 1017 saying she has openly declared war against press freedom.

Referring to the raid of the Daily Tribune and deployment of military forces in two television stations, the participants of the tri-media Bicol summit saw the heightening of media repression over time with PP 1017 implementation.

The participants, in consensus, approved the content of the statement but made the affixing of signatures optional. Fears of harassment were expressed during the deliberation on whether or not to make a stand against the PP 1017.

The participants came from the provinces of Sorsogon, Albay, Catanduanes and the two Camarines provinces. Masbate was not represented.

In a signed statement, the participants to the tri-media summit have accused Macapagal-Arroyo of creating an instrument intended to gag the media through harassment and intimidation.

The statement said that PP 1017 is an authoritarian tool that they said the president uses to deodorize and prop up her regime with the imposition of “the so-called ‘standards’ all media must follow.”

“President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo betrayed the ideals of the EDSA I and resurrected the evils it expunged from the dictatorship,” it added.

The participants of the tri-media summit that the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD) has sponsored criticized Macapagal-Arroyo of endangering the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution.

The statement said that PP 1017 has breached Section 4, Article 3 of the Constitution that says, “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press.”

“(The PP 1017) also abridges the citizens’ right to know and endangers Section 7 of Article 3 which states: ‘The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen’”, the statement added.

The participants of the tri-media summit further advised Macapagal-Arroyo to solve the problem of instability and question of legitimacy with good governance, sincerity and transparency rather than placing the entire nation under the state of emergency.

The statement condemned in strongest terms, as it condemns the declaration of PP 1017, the forces of destabilization that seek to grab power to further their own interests.

Stating their position regarding the enforcement of PP 1017, the tri-media summit participants declared their opposition, resistance, and demanded the immediate revocation of the declaration of the state of emergency.

In Naga City, city councilor John Bongat, a lawyer by profession, expressed alarm over the arrest of columnist Randy David who was arrested along a host of other street parliamentarians during Tuesday’s EDSA observance rally in Manila.

Bongat asserted that David and the other street parliamentarians were merely exercising their right to freedom of expression.He said the raid of the Daily Tribune was reminiscent of the dark days of Martial Law censorship.