“Democracy is fragile. You have to fight for every bit, every law, every safeguard, every institution, every story. You must know how dangerous it is to suffer even the tiniest cut. This is why I say to us all: we must hold the line.” — Maria Ressa.
Oftentimes a small nation does not so much get the acclamation it deserves in the world stage. But the Philippines somehow manages to gain attention for the worldwide consumption: (1) winning the Miss Universe pageants four times; (2) invoking Martial Law and prolonging the Marcos dictatorial regime for fourteen more years; (3) kicking a dictator through a non-violent resistance called the People Power Revolution; (4) revealing the three thousand pairs of Imelda Marcos; (5) the boxing prowess of Flash Elorde and Manny Pacquiao; (6) and the ongoing demand of Filipinos to work overseas as live-in nannies, health professionals, luxury cruise lines crew, agricultural workers, and many other temporary jobs.
Here’s another one that all Filipinos in the country and abroad must celebrate. On October 8, 2021, Maria Ressa became the first Filipino journalist (and the first Filipino ever) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her brave commitments to free expression, human dignity and democratic government in reporting on the authoritarian administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.” This award validates her work and repudiates the ex-President’s harassment of her. Unfortunately, I find the exuberance of Filipinos in celebrating Ressa’s prestigious award somewhat muted. It seems nowadays the bullies and authoritarians get more love than they deserve. I don’t understand the attraction but I won’t dwell on it here. Instead, I will focus in knowing who Maria Ressa is.
She was born in Pasay City, Philippines on October 2, 1963 to Manuel and Hermilina Aycardo. She didn’t get to know her father well because he died suddenly in a car accident in 1964 at age twenty one. When Ressa’s mother was twenty five years old, she immigrated to the United States in 1969, leaving Maria and sister Mary Jane to the care of her father’s parents. When Maria was ten years old, her mother, who remarried to an Italian-American man named Peter Ames Ressa, came home and brought Maria and her sister to the United States. “Everything can change in a moment,” Ressa wrote in her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future (2022). “I never went back to my grandparents’ house or to school. One day, they were my world. The next day, they weren’t. The door to that world was forever shut, and a new reality opened.” But that was just temporary. After graduating cum laude with an AB in English and certificates in theater and dance at Princeton University in 1986, she returned to the Philippines. “I had never felt completely American,” she wrote. “I knew something was missing, so I decided to look for it. If I wasn’t American, I thought, then I must be Filipino…I would return to the Philippines—in search of my grandmother, in search of my roots, in search of home.”
Ressa was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study political theatre at the University of the Philippines. She also reconnected with her childhood friend Muriel “Twink” Macaraig who worked for People’s Television 4 (or PTV4) as the evening newscaster. Twink introduced Ressa to the world of evening news. Ressa was hooked and successfully convinced the managers at PTV4 to hire her as a director of the late-evening newscast. She found her calling.
Ressa made her mark as a well-seasoned journalist with CNN, working as an investigative and foreign correspondent as well as serving as the bureau chief in Manila (1987–95) and Jakarta (1995– 2005). In 2012, Rappler, a digital-only news website, was born with the help of Ressa’s “cofounders manangs” Chay Hofileña, Beth Frondoso and Glenda Gloria. Ressa explained her thinking about birthing Rappler: “My ambition was to create a new standard of investigative journalism in my country, one that would harness the social media platforms to build communities of action for better governance and stronger democracies. At the time, I was the truest of true believers in the power of social media to do good in the world. Using Facebook and other platforms, we were able to crowdsource breaking news, find pivotal sources and tips, harness collective action for climate change and good governance, and help increase voter knowledge and participation in our elections.”
Ironically, the same technology was used to undermine Ressa’s unflinching commitment to facts and truths with the powerful backing of a former president. During his State of the Nation Address in July 2017, Duterte specifically called out Rappler when he said, “Not only is Rappler’s news fake, it being Filipino is also fake.” Also, during an interview with reporters, Duterte was asked about the high murder rate of journalists, he answered, “Just because you’re a journalist you’re not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a b*tch.” Shocking words from a head of government who was supposed to uphold the rule of law not above it. Since then the Duterte administration assailed Ressa with civil suits and bogus prosecutions, including the revoking of her media license. (On January 18, 2023, Ressa and Rappler were acquitted of four tax evasion charges filed in 2018.) “I feel the pent-up anger at the injustice I have no choice but to accept,” Ressa wrote. “That’s what six years of government attacks have done. I may go to jail. For the rest of my life—or, as my lawyer tells me, for more than a hundred years. On charges that should never even have made it to court. The breakdown of the rule of law is global, but it has become, for me, personal. In less than two years, the Philippine government issued ten arrest warrants against me.”
Violence against journalists is a fact. According to Reporters Without Borders report, nearly 1,700 journalists have been killed worldwide over the past twenty years, an average of 85 journalists per year. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters sans frontières documented over 725 journalists killed since 1992, of which three-quarters were targeted and assassinated. Over 85% were local journalists doing their job of exposing violence and corruption in their own backyards. And yet 95% of the people who ordered their murders remain unpunished. These statistics alone do not tell the whole story. For this reason, Terry Gould, an investigative reporter, travelled to the five countries in which it is most dangerous to be a journalist — the Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Iraq, and Bangladesh. The end-product of his travels is a book published in 2009, Murder Without Borders: Dying for the Story in the World’s Most Dangerous Places. In the Philippines, Gould told the story of Marlene Garcia-Esperat of Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, known as the “Erin Brockovitch of the Philippines”. She was murdered in her own home on March 24, 2005 in front of her children. Rowie Barua, one of the four hired killers, testified for the State and revealed the names of the two government officials who hired them. The three hired killers got a life imprisonment but the murder charges against the masterminds were dismissed.
To acknowledge the dangers faced by journalists around the world, the Norwegian Nobel Committee saw it fit to give the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa, along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Nobel Committee, said, “Giving the Peace Prize to two very courageous outstanding journalists that have proved excellent in their profession really illustrates what it means to be a journalist and how you exercise freedom of expression even under the most difficult and destructive circumstances.”
At five foot two, Ressa is a giant. She is one of the brave soldiers of truth. Pitting against a powerful man is a dangerous game. Yet she stands her ground. Amal Clooney, in her Foreword to Ressa’s memoirs, wrote, “It is ironic that autocratic leaders are often called ‘strongmen’ when in fact they cannot tolerate dissent or even allow a level playing field. It is those who stand up to them whose strength should be celebrated — and some of them are only five foot two.” In addition, Clooney said, “Maria’s legacy will be felt for generations —because she never failed to protest, to try to bend the arc of history toward justice. And when young Filipino students study history, they will find that the first Filipino person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was a courageous journalist determined to tell the truth. I hope that, for the sake of future generations, they will be inspired by her example.”
I like to be optimistic and believe that young Filipinos in the future will remember the strength and courage of Maria Ressa. But who can study and remember history when there are so much conspiracies, lies and misinformation in the social media world that most of them are emerged into. I may be wrong but to believe in Duterte more than Ressa; to forget about the brutal rule of the Marcos Sr.; and to elect the Marcos Jr. over the more competent Robredo, can you blame me if I have doubts?
The internet is good and evil combined. It is a useful tool for discovery and learning but so many dangers lurk around it. Ressa has written a book for us to ponder on. In the last page of the book, Ressa said: “My generation has failed, and we are handing you a broken world, which means you have to be stronger and smarter than we are…be skeptical of social media, and walk in someone else’s shoes. Put your phones away…because in the end what matters is the people you love. You find meaning by choosing where to spend your precious time.”
20 February 2023