Dureza urged to apologize for 'irresponsible journalism' remarks
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza owes an apology to journalists he accused of being irresponsible for reporting that Norway is being removed as "facilitator" in peace negotiations, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Tuesday.
On Monday, Dureza said that such reports were "an example of irresponsible journalism."
"In fact, I am now in Oslo, Norway to attend an international forum on conflict mediation and to express our country’s gratitude for Norway’s significant and continuing support to the long drawn peace negotiations with the left," Dureza said in a statement.
However, the reports stating that Norway would no longer be the third-party facilitator for peace talks between the government and communist rebels came from presidential spokesperson Harry Roque himself.
The NUJP said that Dureza should have checked the claims of Roque instead of taking it at face value.
"Especially so given that he, at the very least, should be aware that the source of the story, presidential spokesman Harry Roque, has built a reputation for prevarication within an administration that has time and again proven itself to be the prime purveyor of falsehood and, in fact, has welcomed experts of this dark craft into the bureaucracy," NUJP chair Nonoy Espina said in a statement.
An excerpt of the Malacañang press briefing last Monday can be read below:
Ina Andolong of CNN Philippines: Who will be facilitating the talks here then?
Roque: We have a panel and they have the authority to fix the logistics ‘no.
Andolong: No third party—
Roque: Wala na po siguro, nandito na naman tayo sa Pilipinas. Pero you know any party who wants to help and who’s been involved in the process can help ‘no. Pero ang punto lang ni Presidente eh hindi niya na maintindihan kung bakit kinakailangan pa sa ibang bansa ‘no ang pag-uusap.
The NUJP stressed that most media outfits based their reports on Roque's "wala na po siguro" remarks.
The fault lay with the government's "all too often muddled communications" and not with the media, the NUJP said.
"Roque is, at best, cherry picking through his words, at worst, brazenly twisting the truth. Which seems par for the course as far as this administration goes," Espina said.
[STATEMENT] NUJP on Dureza’s ‘irresponsible journalism’ remarks pic.twitter.com/5Vc6ZwwlVS
— NUJP (@nujp) June 19, 2018
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines claimed that the Duterte administration canceled the resumption of peace talks to give the military more time for its offensives against the New People's Army.
CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said this move was "disappointing and frustrating" and urged both panels to make pulic the stand-down agreement signed on June 8.
President Rodrigo Duterte, on the other hand, said that he canceled the scheduled peace talks on June 28 to 30 as he needs more time.
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