The Tale of the (Missing) Tape
By Hector Bryant L. Macale
On March 10, Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor said that television station ABC-5 had a taped interview with Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim announcing his withdrawal of support from the administration. The interview supposedly took place on Feb. 23, the eve of the 20th anniversary of People Power 1. The tape with Lim’s announcement was supposed to be viewed on Feb. 25 in a Makati rally.
But fate had other things in mind. The supposed plot to unseat the president was uncovered and Lim was promptly dismissed as commander of the Army’s elite First Scout Ranger Regiment. The supposed taped interview was never aired. Yet, the government is bent on getting a copy to pursue its case against the alleged mutineers led by Lim.
The government’s problems come from two things: first, Lim has denied ever taking part in any conspiracy against Arroyo. Se-cond, ABC-5, which supposedly did the interview, also denied that such a tape exists.
But Defensor has insisted, “I am convinced that the recording of the interview on the alleged power grab exists. There should be a legal basis for (ABC-5) to produce the taped interview which never went on air.” He indicated that “network insi-ders” had tipped him off about the tape.
According to him, admi-nistration officials learned of the tape’s existence on the eve of the alleged coup, saying that it was “one of the leaks” that alerted Malacañang about the plot. Defensor said that the tape would provide proof that Lim was involved in the failed uprising.
He added that the Palace had asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to subpoena the tape. “I can understand that without a law as a basis to compel the TV network to release the tape, it will continue to deny its existence,” Defensor was quoted as saying. Four days later, the NBI formally asked ABC-5 for a copy of the tape, explaining that it “would be a very vital evidence in the investigation being conducted by the bureau.”
PJR Reports had asked Defensor for an interview to explain more about the alleged Lim tape. He initially agreed but later did not respond to the calls made or text messages sent to him by this writer.
Fruitless search
Further complicating the issue, however, was ABC-5’s denial that such a tape existed.
“Ang ABC-5 ay wala pong hawak na interview o video footage ni former Scout Ranger Regiment Commander Brig. General Danny Lim,” the station said in a statement. “Inuulit po namin na pinangangahalagahan ng ABC-5 ang kalayaan ng media sa pamamagitan ng responsable, malaya, at makabuluhang pamamahayag,” ABC-5 added.
Pressed by PJR Reports for more details, Ed Lingao, head of the station’s news operations, declined to comment further, saying the issue had become “complicated.” Defensor had pointed to Lingao as the one who interviewed Lim.
“(ABC-5) cannot hide it. It would always be at the archives,” Defensor insisted in the reports.
According to lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, chair of the human rights organization, Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said that assuming there is such a tape of Lim’s interview, it is still the station’s property. He said there is “no obligation on the part of the private entity to give such a tape to the government, granting there is one.”
“The government would have to go to the court first,” Diokno said in an interview with PJR Reports. FLAG recently figured in the news for filing a petition before the Court of Appeals addressing the clampdown on the press even after the lifting of the state of national emergency. The petition was signed by journalists and media organizations such as the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philip-pine Press Institute, and the Phi-lippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Rey Hulog, executive director of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), also said that ABC-5 does not have to send a copy of the interview, that is, if the interview had indeed taken place.
According to Hulog, it is the general policy of KBP’s member-stations not to accommodate requests for copies of interviews, especially if these could incri-minate the stations. “If this is going to be used against the station, then you don’t give it out, unless there’s a court order,” he said.
So what happens in cases like this when the government insists there is a tape and the station denies it?
“If ABC-5 says there isn’t (a tape), we can’t do anything about it,” Hulog shrugged.
ABC-5 is a member of the KBP, a national association of broadcasting organizations in the country.
Enemy or ally?
The government‘s dogged efforts to get the alleged Lim tape is viewed by the press as a reflection of the continuing clampdown on media, especially those labeled by the admi-nistration as “seditious.”
Both the Center for Com-munity Journalism and Deve-lopment and the Southeast Asia chapter of the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) regard the incident as an effort to stifle media. The administration, INSI said, should stop these “attempts against the press” and “uphold (the) freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”
Manila Times columnist Danilo Mariano also viewed the government’s insistence to get the alleged tape as part of the continuing attempts to gag the press. “Even after PP 1017 was withdrawn, the administration has persisted in its attempts to muzzle its media detractors.”
In recent weeks, Malacañang has been pressing the media to help it provide corroboration and proof that would enable it to nail down its enemies. In its March 27, 2006 issue, Newsbreak maga-zine published photographs supposedly showing alleged cheating by the administration in the 2004 presidential elections. Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez said he would ask the magazine to send to Malacañang all its documents that would prove cheating in the last elections. Marites Vitug replied in a TV interview that everything the government needs has already been published in the magazine.
A comical, if not pathetic, pattern is emerging. The govern-ment, which has been earnestly trying to clamp down on media, is also turning to it for help in providing information it needs to fight for its survival.
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