Does the media have role in helping deliver lasting and fair peace in Mindanao?

This was the question which the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project helped try to answer through its media dialogue held February 10 at the Balay Kalinaw in UP Diliman campus in Quezon City.

The media dialogue gathered approximately 130 participants from the media, peace advocacy groups, human rights community, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, party list organizations, faith-based groups, government, universities, media development organizations, research institutions, international development sector, and the diplomatic community.

The media dialogue featured as panelists historian Rudy Rodil, former vice chair of the Government Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace negotiating panel with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); lawyer Michael Mastura, senior member of the MILF peace negotiating panel; MindaNews chair and editor-in-chief Carol Arguillas; Newsbreak editor-in-chief Marites Danguilan Vitug; Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project director Alan Davis; and peace journalist and Bantay Ceasefire volunteer Romy Elusfa.

The media dialogue also featured “Gyera: Ganito Pa Rin Ba Tayo sa Mindanao 2020?” (War: Are We Still Like This in Mindanao 2020?), a photo exhibit on the effects of the recent clashes between government and MILF on civilians, especially women and children.

Davis pointed out the characteristics of media: “blunt, simplistic and immediate” and “moves on rapidly.” He said that peace journalism, while it may be well meaning, is also “wooly, naïve and manipulative.”

Media, Davis said, should be involved from the outset of the peace process and help shape the agreement. “Media can provide a running narrative—it can educate and inform, and ensure no surprises. But equally it can engage and facilitate. It should also listen and learn.”

Arguillas said Mindanao still suffers from stereotyped image, such as “home to the world’s largest university of terror” and island of kidnappers, bombers, and terrorists. This is why Mindanao makes it to the headlines especially in Manila newsrooms only when there are news on kidnappings, bombings, and wars, she said.

“There is strong anti-Muslim bias that is also manifested in reportage,” Arguillas said. This is further manifested, she said, because those who usually report or offer opinions on Mindanao are national news networks and international wire agencies which have very little understanding on the context of the Mindanao issue.

In answering the dialogue’s main question, Arguillas said the media has to acknowledge the Mindanao problem as a national problem; to look back and study history to understand the issues and move forward; and to acknowledge the historical injustices against the Bangsamoro and Lumad.

Mastura said the media, especially desk editors, are fond of “killing stories, but essentially they are already killing ideas.”

“Media in the Philippines cannot handle the truth. It tends to distort the truth,” he said.

He cited the portrayal of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), the restraint in the signing of which in August last year sparked attacks by MILF renegade leaders in Lanao Del Norte, North Cotabato and Sarangani provinces. The Supreme Court eventually declared the MOA-AD unconstitutional.

“There was nothing wicked in the MOA-AD but the media helped demonize it,” he said.

Vitug admitted current reporting in the Mindanao question showed bias of the Manila media on the issue. She said there was “undue reporting” on conspiracy theories on the MOA-AD but what was missing were comprehensive reporting on it such as decisions and processes before Malacanang arrived at the MOA-AD.

“Media played catch-up, reporting only on the last stretch of the MOA-AD,” she said. Lack of briefings from the authorities pushed the media to get information from unofficial sources, including politicians opposing the agreement.

Vitug said journalists “should not keep Mindanao off our radar screen,” adding that Mindanao peace issue still remains to be an issue least followed according a Social Weather Stations survey.

In moving forward, the media should do its job in reporting “accurately, honestly, in a sober way, and avoid incendiary reporting,” she said.

She also said civil society and government should see media as partner to let the public know their views.

Bayan Muna party list Rep. Satur Ocampo said the MOA-AD and the peace negotiations were blurred due to secrecy. “The negotiators should have provided media with regular briefings while keeping some parts in confidentiality,” said Ocampo, former spokesperson of the peace negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front with the government.

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, who attended the media dialogue, said media has an extraordinary role and responsibility to report why the Mindanao conflict matters to each Filipino.

“You are the link,” Kenney said.

 Media Dialogue Introductory Letter by PHRRP Director Alan Davis (86 kB) 

 Media and Peace in Mindanao by Carol Arguillas (1.41 MB)

 Covering the Government-MILF Peace Negotiation by Michael Mastura (95 kB)

 Peace in 20 years by Rudy Rodil (7.71 MB)

 Portayal of Mindanao in the National Media by Marites Vitug (39.5 kB)