Leandro DD Coronel By Leandro DD Coronel The government’s hostility toward rights activists or the media is ill-advised. It should just let them be. Activists are like ants, their bites are annoying but they’re not deadly. Making a fuss about them only gives them importance and puts the government in a bad light. Take the recent case of an Australian nun who was detained for sympathizing with the poor and landless. Sister Patricia Fox was arrested by Bureau of Immigration operatives, according to President Duterte upon his orders, and given a hard time. She was later released after the brouhaha landed in the press. (As I write this, news has it she will be deported.) What trouble for the government can a 71-year-old woman cause? Does the government have the right to question a foreigner’s presence and possible protest activities in the country? Of course, it does. But the Australian nun has been residing in the Philippines for 27 years. Except for expressing her views about the country’s human rights situation, she’s been doing social work among underprivileged people in the country. How much damage can an elderly nun do to the country’s image? Close to nil if she were left to her own devices and advocacies. Everybody knows about the news outfit Rappler’s problems with the government. Mr. Duterte said he found Rappler’s Malacañang correspondent unfriendly toward the government. And so he banned her from covering Malacañang. Besides that, Rappler is also having legal troubles over its accreditation and standing as a mainstream news organization. What does that do for the government? It comes out as a bully and repressive. I’ve written before that if I were advising the government on how to deal with media, I would take a live-and-let-live attitude toward the press. The media cannot by itself topple the government. Media, anywhere in the world, are not that powerful to cause any government to fall. The media report the news, good and bad. They don’t manufacture the news. So, what’s the government afraid of? If the government isn’t doing anything wrong or unlawful, then there’s nothing to fear about the media. The media can only report what they see. If they report fake news there are laws with which to go after news organizations that report untruths. If I were advising government, I would be more tolerant of media and rights groups, domestic and foreign. That way, government will be creating goodwill instead of ill-will. By doing that, media and civic groups may even take a positive attitude toward government. Media and non-governmental organizations exist to ferret out anomalies in government. Media, specially, has a constitutional role to act as a watchdog over government actions. Traditionally, government and media are adversaries. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as neither of them commits illegal acts against one another. I would take a more lenient attitude toward media and rights groups if I were government. That would earn it praise and even perhaps a more cooperative stance from these sectors. Arresting an elderly nun and making life difficult for media create unnecessary animosity and ill-will. The government’s media handlers know this. But they choose to be antagonistic rather than tolerant and accommodating.   *** Tantrum Ergo. If the incoming national police chief will continue the bloody and brutal Operation Tokhang that has killed thousands of Filipinos, why are people cheering his appointment?