PRESIDENTIAL aspirant, Senator Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Pacquiao paid a visit and laid a wreath on the foot of the Press Freedom Monument as soon as he arrived here Saturday afternoon, to honor the 201 journalists murdered since 1986.
Pacquiao is the 1st presidential aspirant to visit the Press Freedom Monument in Cagayan de Oro which was constructed to honor the fallen journalists making the Philippines the 7th most dangerous place for journalists to work.
“Press freedom is the face of democracy. We will not allow a return to the time of Marcos (the late strongman President Ferdinand Marcos) where the press is controlled by the government,” Pacquiao later told the local community press.
After the wreath-laying, Pacquiao attended a freewheeling press conference with the local journalists where he answered topics ranging from graft and corruption, boxing, and his housing program.
He said he finds the red-tagging of journalists and activists “unconstitutional” and promised it should be reviewed if he wins the presidency.
Pacquiao even extended the one-hour press conference and answered more questions from the local press, unlike last Wednesday when presidential candidate Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr, controlled the entry of media persons.
“Let’s extend this. You rarely have a press conference with me. We make use of the time we are here together,” Pacquiao told reporters.
In his visit, last Wednesday, Marcos and his media coordinators invited only a select few new reporters drawing flak from Cagayan de Oro’s more veteran journalists who were not invited.
The Marcos camp also required the reporters to submit the questions they would ask two days before their press conference.
“This is what a press conference of a presidential candidate should be. No discrimination and no advance questions,” Jigger Jerusalem, correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Pacquiao later went to his rally which was held in the newly-inaugurated Amphitheater in Divisoria, Cagayan de Oro, becoming the first politician to use the venue after it was closed in the 2000s.
The old Amphitheater was the city’s cultural center and where the late Senator Aquilino Pimentel launched his anti-Marcos campaign during Martial law.
Talking to his supporters, Pacquiao appealed that they would vote for him on May 9 which the crowd answered “Daug ka na!”
Pacquiao’s staff estimated the crowd to be from 10,000 to 12,000 with people spilling onto the side streets and watching from the nearby buildings.
Cagayan de Oro City Police Director Colonel Aaron Mandia also confirmed the 10,000 to 12,000 crowd estimate given the size of the venue like the Amphitheater.
