Panayam kay Executive Director Usec. Paul Guiterrez ng PTFoMS
Panayam kay Executive Director Usec. Paul Guiterrez ng PTFoMS
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00:00 Update on the visit of UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan to the country.
00:05 We will discuss this with the Presidential Task Force on Media Security Executive Director,
00:11 Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez.
00:14 Usec, good afternoon.
00:16 Good afternoon to you and thank you for the invitation.
00:22 First of all, how was your visit with the UN Special Rapporteur?
00:28 And what have you discussed so far?
00:33 Well, we are very happy with the work that was given to us.
00:40 The agencies that want to talk to Ms. Irene Khan have been invited.
00:48 The National Privacy Commission, the DIRG, and the Department of Justice have already talked to us.
00:56 We have also talked to the NTF-ELCA and other agencies, even the private civil society organizations.
01:08 What we are seeing here is that she is acknowledging that our processes are working.
01:17 We have seen some observations that we know that in the future, the Philippines will be able to support her when she releases her recommendations.
01:31 We have also accompanied her in her visits to Baguio, Tacloban City and Cebu.
01:37 She talked to our governor, Governor Juan Garcia in Cebu and the city council of Baguio City.
01:49 She talked to our magistrates in the Supreme Court, our chief justice, Ms. Mundo, and the leaders of the Congress.
02:03 Yesterday, we accompanied her to talk to the leaders of our Congress.
02:09 In short, the three branches of our government, executive, legislative, judiciary, have already talked to the officials here.
02:23 We will show the readiness of our country to accept visitors and show them that our democracy is really active, especially in the discussion of freedom of expression and opinion.
02:39 Usec, do you have concerns or questions for Ms. Erin Kan as the executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security?
02:48 She asked what are our processes if there are threats to the media. We explained this to her. She also asked what our government is doing if there are media that are being killed.
03:06 We explained this to her. We also pointed out that under the administration of Marcos, the four cases of murder are considered solved because the witnesses,
03:22 the suspects are identified as the perpetrators of the cases. We also showed her that the administration of Marcos is trying to raise the rank of the Philippines
03:35 in the Global Impunity Index of the Committee to Protect Journalists from number seven in the last two years of the Duterte administration to number eight.
03:45 We are now in the middle of our half-year service as the executive director of our task force.
03:55 We also showed her that the Ognayat Task Force and the government's responsible agencies, especially the Department of Justice, the NBI,
04:07 DILG and the Philippine National Police, are now included in the Philippine Armed Forces.
04:15 Sir, as the executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, you personally accompanied her in all of her travels in the Philippines.
04:30 Her particular visit to Tacloban, we accompanied Ms. Candon to make sure that she can talk to all the officials that she wants to talk to.
04:45 She was also included in her visit to the prison of Tacloban City Jail, where three human rights defenders and the mayor, Dio Manolo, are being held.
04:59 Yesterday, we accompanied her to the Congress and the other trips of Ms. Candon were canceled by our excellent staff here in the Philippine Armed Forces,
05:14 my chief of staff and my head executive assistant.
05:19 Our task force moved to make sure that Ms. Irene Can's engagements are comfortable, she can reach on time and she can talk to all the government officials that she wants to talk to.
05:36 Sir last question on my end. Were you there when she met up with former Senator Laila de Lima? How was their meeting?
05:47 What can you say about their meeting?
05:50 Her engagements with other people, other personalities, outside of the government, we did not stop her.
06:00 This is a reference to her, that she is free to talk and have a dialogue with anyone she wants to talk to.
06:11 I apologize, we do not know the details of their conversation with former Senator Laila de Lima, except what we read in the press release.
06:23 Sir what can Ms. Irene Can say in support of President Marquez Jr. when it comes to the rights and welfare of the country's citizens?
06:32 Well actually, she questioned our figure. I will repeat, the government's data through the Presidential Task Force on Media Security,
06:46 this is verifiable, this is confirmed. She was surprised that more than half of the killings that have happened in the media since 1987,
06:59 more than half of them, they don't know about this in the United Nations, were resolved by our government.
07:08 She was thankful and she recognized that these media that were passed to her by the administration of President Marquez,
07:20 were resolved and identified the suspects in these four incidents.
07:31 So in Congress, I believe the Constitutional Laws were discussed regarding the Human Rights Defenders Bill,
07:40 regarding the decriminalization of libel, and of course, our Media Welfare Act.
07:47 So overall, I think we have presented to Ms. Irene Can the commitment, openness, and transparency of the Marquez administration
07:58 in addressing all these issues related to freedom of opinion and expression, in particular, of course, to the broader issue of human rights.
08:08 Sir I have a follow-up. When we say media security, we're not just talking about crimes against the media.
08:14 Is there anyone here who was involved or was the media state discussed when it comes to their work, job security?
08:23 We have many media colleagues who have been working for years and they are not regular or their company is not regular.
08:31 That's right. That's why we explained to her that the entire PCO, even the DOJ, the entire executive branch is supported by those who are in charge of media welfare.
08:48 These will provide additional benefits to our brothers and sisters in the field of media welfare.
08:54 This is appreciated by Ms. Irene Can.
08:58 Okay. We have a question sir from our media colleagues, Tuesday New of DZBB.
09:08 His question is, what is the agenda of the meeting later between Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and UN Special Rapporteur Irene Can?
09:18 Who are the people involved in this meeting?
09:21 Well, later, we will have a meeting. By the way, this is a last-minute request to Ms. Irene Can to talk to Executive Secretary Bersamin later this afternoon.
09:37 The only people involved in this is us, as we are the shepherds in the responsibility of ES.
09:47 But the only people who will talk here is Ms. Irene Can and ES Bersamin.
09:54 Whatever their actual discussion is, we don't know that for now.
10:02 Although, last night, we gave a brief to ES on potential areas or concerns that Ms. Can can discuss.
10:14 Next question is from Tuesday New of DZBB.
10:18 In the 10-day visit to the country of UN Special Rapporteur Irene Can, what has been achieved?
10:26 Well, first of all, on our part as the government, we will show our transparency, our openness, our readiness to dialogue with anyone
10:38 and show the true record of the state of the right to forgive and to express ourselves to our country.
10:47 First of all, I think we have made that impression that aside from the negative feedback that will come from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
11:00 her visit helped to show to the United Nations that not all the reports to the UN are correct.
11:12 The credibility of our government is stronger in dealing with these problems because our processes and justice system here in the country are strong and strong.
11:31 I think it's a good thing that Ms. Can appreciated that she saw that the opinions and positions of our society are really coming together.
11:45 But all of these are being consented by our administration.
11:50 I have a follow-up question on my first question earlier, Usec.
11:54 You mentioned that the job security of our media partners is not good.
12:02 There are many labor cases that our media partners are involved in.
12:06 How is this?
12:07 Has this been discussed or discussed on how to speed up the process of hearing or before the decision can be issued?
12:17 I haven't discussed or given much attention to that issue.
12:26 But I just want to remind that this is for approval by our Senate.
12:33 One of the things that will be included in our media welfare act in the Senate is the creation of a tripartite council where the Department of Labor will participate
12:50 to discuss the points of complaint of our media partners who are involved in the DOLEC.
12:59 We cannot say that we still have many media partners who have been working for decades but their status is not permanent.
13:09 Some of them retired and they are not permanent.
13:12 Their separation pay is not like the regular employees.
13:17 And some of them died and their benefits were not received.
13:23 So I hope that their relatives will be given because they have been working for years and gave their lives and services for their work as media partners.
13:35 So as a last question, sir, do you have anything to add?
13:42 Tomorrow is the last day of the MISCAN in our country. We will have an exit conference with her.
13:53 This is a closed door. She will brief our government agencies. She will talk about her observations and recommendations.
14:04 Afterwards, we will have a press conference. This will be around 12 noon if our exit conference is over.
14:16 Our media partners can clarify their questions and the panel of our government is ready to answer their questions.
14:33 Tomorrow, we will have a clear discussion about what our executive secretary and Ms. Erin Khan have discussed.
14:44 Moving forward, the initial drop-down of the MISCAN will be sent to us around June for our government's comments.
14:57 Once it is finalized, I will submit it to the Assembly of the United Nations in the next year, July 2025.
15:08 All right. Thank you very much for your time, Presidential Task Force on Media Security, Executive Director Under Secretary Paul Gutierrez.