THREAD: This is probably the last thing I will post about “the question.” Friends of mine have privately expressed their disagreement over my posts castigating Tina Panganiban-Perez. One asked “shouldn’t journalists ask the hard questions?” while another..

...wondered whether we should judge Tina just for this one question. I couldn’t agree more with the first question and I replied yes to the second.

Tina’s question was NOT a hard question. A hard question, in this context, might be something like this:

“Ms. Non, I have looked..

... into the claims of Parlade and other red-taggers that your community pantry was created by the Communist Party. In my investigation, based on financial documents I gathered through a Freedom of Information Act request that I have in my hand that I can show you right now...

...that claim seems to have basis. You deny it. But I still need to ask you: do you have communist links?”

I would consider this a hard question and the public would be the better for it. But Tina did not have any of that. So her question is not a hard question. It is,in truth..

... a lazy question that is at the same time incendiary. It is a question, more importantly, straight out of Parlade’s mouth.

Which brings me to why I told my friend that yes, Tina should be judged for that one question. If Tina had done her job, the veteran journalist...

... in her would have found that red-tagging is seriously damaging. It has contributed to the deaths of many, many activists. And these deaths, this violence encouraged by the likes of Parlade, is what makes all this reprehensible. This is not just one neglible issue; this is...

...about life and death, about human rights, about civil liberties. And, as I said, had Tina done her job, she should know this and she would have been more circumspect in asking that question or ask it in a way that is contextualized but also respectful of those who suffered...

from red-tagging.

During the ‘60s McCarthyist witchhunts in the US, the question “Are you or have you ever been a member of the communist party?” tore the fabric of American democracy. “Do you have communist links?” does the exact same thing. #

* ‘50s
** exact same thing to Philippine democracy.