The Maginhawa Community Pantry initiated by furniture designer Patricia Non halted its operation due to relentless red-tagging by police forces. As she feared for her safety as well as the volunteers of her community pantry, Non conducted a press briefing this Tuesday, April 20, to air their side.
This followed after police officers have started asking for her affiliation, days after they surveyed the area. Non also raised an alarming situation as the Quezon City Police District linked her and other community pantries to rebel groups.
During an interview with Kapuso journalist Tina Panganiban-Perez, Non was taken aback after Perez asked: “Just to set the record straight, para naman wala ng masyadong tanong or duda sa’yo, meron ka nga bang links to communist groups until now? Or nagkaron? Ano ba ang basis nitong red-tagging sa’yo?”
This question coming from a veteran reporter drew various reactions from fellow journalists on twitter.
Columnist Marlon Ramos thought Perez’s question was a valid one. Ramos stressed that the Kapuso reporter only wanted to know Non’s reply regarding the malicious allegations from the red-taggers.
Since Perez did not support such claims, the columnist thinks that there was nothing wrong with the question.
Thought it was a valid question, which Patreng answered brilliantly. @tinapperez just wanted to elicit her reply to the malicious allegations from those idiots.
For asking that question, did mam Tina support those claims?! Alam nyo na siguro ang sagot jan.
— Marlon Ramos (@iammarlonramos) April 20, 2021
GMA Network broadcaster Kara David likewise agreed with Ramos’s opinion. David also thought that there was nothing wrong with the question.
Totally agree
— Kara David (@karadavid) April 20, 2021
Kapuso journalist Raffy Tima highlighted that since it is the concern why the Maginhawa Community Pantry got red-tagged, it was an “elephant in the room”–meaning the question is inevitable.
It was an “elephant in the room” question, it had to be asked. https://t.co/eJKv2UEirC
— Raffy Tima (@raffytima) April 20, 2021
The question of Perez drew criticism from Netizens. Columnist Tonyo Cruz defended Perez by stating that the reporter has the right and duty to ask the question.
Cruz also emphasized that the ones who needed ‘to be bullied’ are the red-taggers, not Perez.
Please stop picking on @tinapperez. She has the right and duty to ask questions, even inconvenient ones. The question needed to be asked, and the Maginhawa Community Pantry addressed it.
Pick on the real foes: Parlade, Badoy-Partosa and other utak-talangka red-taggers.
— Tonyo Cruz (@tonyocruz) April 20, 2021
Meanwhile, other journalists felt that Perez did ask an “unethical question.”
SunStar columnist Nonoy Espina condemned the question of Perez. According to Espina, no journalist has the right to demand, on false charges, to “set the record straight.”
No journalist has the right to demand that anyone "set the record straight" on totally false charges, especially if you have no knowledge of these in the first place.
Tama si Patreng, napakarumi ng tanong na yon and she owes no one, much less media, an explanation.— nonoy espina (@EspinaNonoy) April 20, 2021
Another columnist and UP professor Danilo Arao reminded journalists not to ask red-tagged persons whether if they were part of a communist group.
Danilo says that if a reporter does such an interrogation, it implies that the baseless accusation is true. He then advised journalists to be more professional and ethical.
The professor also took a jab at Perez as he wrote on his twitter account, “nakakahiya ka!” after she questioned Non’s affiliation with any rebel group.
DEAR JOURNO: To ask a red-tagged person if he or she is a communist is to assume truth behind a baseless accusation. Please be more professional and ethical. Two words: Nakakahiya ka!
— Danilo Arao (@dannyarao) April 20, 2021
Former ABS-CBN reporter Kevin Manalo reiterated Non’s reaction as he reminded his colleagues to find better ways to get information rather than sounding accusatory.
“Ang dumi po ng tanong na yan.”
Dear journos, there are better ways to get information other than being accusatory.
— Kevin Manalo (@kevinmanalo_) April 20, 2021
Ex-journalist Caloy Conde likewise condemned the question of Perez.
Conde stressed that journalists should “think before asking” after Perez demanded Non to explain if she has a link with any communist group.
The question, for Conde, is only making the lead organizer accountable, that she is part of any insurgent parties.
https://twitter.com/carloshconde/status/1384456122291998723
Award-winning photojournalist Ezra Acayan likewise scrutinized Perez for asking that question.
Acayan said that the Kapuso reporter’s inquiry is the same as how reporters ask grieving mothers of the drug war if their children were drug addicts.
Anyone who thinks that @tinapperez 's question to AP Non asking if she was affiliated with communists was harmless should be reminded of the harm reporters inflicted by asking grieving mothers of the drug war questions like "adik nga ba ang anak mo?"
— Ezra Acayan 📸 (@eacayan) April 20, 2021
In response to Perez’s query, Non considered it as a “dirty question” after stating that she is not part of any rebel group.
“Sa totoo lang po, wala po akong links sa communist party. And pasensya na po, andumi po ng question na yan,” answered Non.
According to her, the only intention why she initiated the Maginhawa Community Pantry is to help feed the people.
“Kasi last thing na kailangan kong i-explain sa tao kung ano ako, sino ba ako. Kasi malinaw ang intensyon ko na gusto kong may ma-set up na community pantry and makakain yung mga tao,” she added.
Non also explained that it should not be her doing the explanation but rather those who accused her of being part of a communist group.
“So between me, and other people na nagkulang ng response, tingin ko hindi ako dapat nag-eexplain kung ano ba ako, sino ba ako. Kasi malinaw ang intensyon ko una pa lang,” she said.