Exec. Judge curtails press freedom?

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

The administrator of the Supreme Court should know that by prohibiting media men to cover their fellow media practitioner who filed her bail bond recently at the office of the Regional Trial Court Branch 69, Executive Judge Lelia Parayno of the Justice Hall of Lingayen, Pangasinan curtail their Constitutional freedoms of speech, expression, and press.

PHOTO CREDIT:savetheinternet.com

Last Friday the guards at the gate of the Hall were at their usual vexatious demeanour again after I had arguments with them last August when they barred me to enter the compound to cover the filling of counter affidavits of DWPR broadcaster Lina M. Cervantes on the four libel suits filed against her by Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr.

One of the guards told USATV host Jessie Perez, DWPR broadcasters Macky Delgado, Harold Barcelona, and others that TV camera was not allowed because it was an order from Judge Parayno.

“Kahit wala kaming camera puwede naman naming ma cover ng cp (mobile phone) namin ang kasama namin,” mocked by Perez to the idiocy of the guard when we left the building.

I told the watch man that what he told us that they only followed order from Parayno was prohibited by law.

“Sumunod lang kami sa utos ni judge,” he told me.

Whether Judge Parayno ordered it or not, the guard using her name to prevent us from doing our job, just like other media men had done in the country, covering the filing of bail bonds of our colleague would not sit her well because she is an officer of the law that should be protecting our rights like freedom of the press.

Besides, we did not cover a hearing inside the sala of the judge but a mere filing in the office of Regional Trial Court Judge Loreto Alog of the bail bond this month and the filing of counter-affidavits at the office of the provincial prosecutor last month.

Last early August I lambasted the guards and their supervisor named Vallo when they would not let me in when I told them that I was there to cover the filing of Cervantes of her counter-affidavits.

Here was the excerpt of that encounter:

“Here was an arrogant supervisor of the security guards of the Bessang Pass at the Hall of Justice in Lingayen, Pangasinan telling media men last Monday that they were not allowed to cover fellow media woman, Lina Cervantes of DWPR, who filed her counter affidavits on the libel cases filed by Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr.

“Iyan ang utos sa amin ni executive judge, bawal ang coverage ng media,” the security supervisor named Vallo, who is a dead ringer of movie side kick Bentong, sternly told me.

“Paano naging bawal, hinde naman korte ang iko-cover ko sa office ng fiscal naman ang pupuntahan ko,? I calmly posed.

“Lahat dito hawak ng executive judge,” he hissed.

“Sa buong Pilipinas ngayon lang ako nakakita na ang media bawal pumasok sa office ng fiscal, under sa Department of Justice iyan hinde sa sala ng judge o sa Supreme Court. Noong na libel ako, may dala rin akong national TV (GMA-7) network dito” I protested.

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Just as I predicted: Presidential bet falls from survey

Presidential aspirants in the Philippines can take a look and learn a lesson on the Republican presidential bets on the debate sponsored by cable TV CNN last Thursday. In that debate, where charisma and intelligence matter, some bets falter. Their mistakes in answering questions from the panel could zap out their previous gains in the past surveys.

Take for instance Dr. Ben Carson, who was breathing with 23% poll rate at the back of Donald Trump’s 27%, whose tragic answer when asked if he was the president of the United States after the September 11, 2001 Twin Towers attack what would he do.

He said that he would not send troops to invade Afghanistan to make Al Quida leader Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban ilk’s pay after they hatched a plan in making American Airliners fly as cruise missiles, with Muslim terrorists manoeuvring the cockpits, and plunge in the Towers in New York City that killed 2,996 people.

For me (who scribbled this article after the debate Thursday) Carson could lose points in the next polls because of his unintelligent remarks on Afghanistan.

On that debate, New Jersey Governor “His Immensity” Cris Christie, a presidential bet, disputed Carson who said after the attacked, 9 out of 10 people he met told him that they favour President George H.W Bush to invade Afghanistan and make the Talibans’ and Bin Laden pay for what they did to the Americans.

Son of a gun, after I opened Fox News TV (Friday afternoon) I saw Trump crowing in a town hall meeting that in Time Magazine, News Max, others he was the runaway winner on the polls vis-a-vis the CNN debate and heard from him how Carson plummeted and the cellar dweller Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, skyrocketed.

Fiorina’s poll stock, for me, spiked because of her intelligent retorts to the panel and savvy in arguing with fellow presidential wannabes.

Filipino politicians running in the national office should be careful of what come out of their mouth. It could be a faux pas just like what some of them had mouthed by defending the hated demonstrators of the Iglesia ni Cristo that caused monstrous traffic at EDSA for four days. Not to mention the peeved of the majority of the Filipinos on the INC swashbuckling on their connection with the power-that-be as a result of their block voting every election.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at P’nan Biggest News. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)