The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines stands with our colleagues from the campus publications of the University of the Philippines and denounces the cowards who have threatened them with violence.
On Monday, March 1, the Tinig ng Plaridel, official student paper of the College of Mass Communication, reported receiving an anonymous message, one of which said: “Binabalaan namin kayo. Itigil niyo na ang ginagawa niyo. Kung ayaw niyong itumba namin kayo (We are warning you. Stop what you are doing if you don’t want us to kill you).”
Editors from member-publications of UP Solidaridad also reported threats from an account calling itself “Marcos Dimaculangan,” a name as false as the courage and imagination of the imbeciles behind this pathetic and tired labeling of intellectual betters as “terrorists.”
Yes, for only imbeciles AND cowards can fail to grasp the irony that THEY are the terrorists, wrongly believing the violence that they threaten and, admittedly, can wield could ever suppress freedom of thought and of expression.
Indeed, right never equals right, nor will brute force kill superior ideas, especially not when those they think to frighten into submission are among the best, and the brightest, and the most courageous of the Filipino youth.
No, Sirs, whoever you are, democracy was never built, much less protected, by idiots with guns. It has always been, and will always be, the free market of ideas, not groupthink, not mindless obedience, on which democracy is built and thrives.
By threatening violence on those you disagree with means you have already lost the argument and have conceded that yours is the inferior mind, the lesser thought.
Reference:
National Directorate
+639175155991
