A COALITION of campus publication across the country called anew for the junking of the Anti-Terrorism Law a year after it was first imposed.

Led by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, the groups said the law served as an assault to press and freedom of expression of student journalists.

“Terror law has exposed how its provisions are meant to crush down every campus journalists’ responsibility for critical reportage and even attack ordinary citizens. Instances such as the Zambales 12 illegal arrest had CEGP-Central Luzon and The Manila Collegian press behind bars on their way to a Labor Day protest action, while Cassipi Online senior editor Justine Mesias had his house raided by around 40 state forces,” it said.

“The CEGP-Bicol and The PILLARS, meanwhile, had urine poured into them in a rally to commemorate International Working Women’s Day along the spates of red-tagging threatened the lives of Alyansa ng Kabataang Mamamahayag ng PUP, Himati, Philippine Collegian, SINAG, UP Solidaridad, Ang Pahayagang Plaridel, and other youth groups,” it added.

Instead of addressing the health and financial crisis brought by the pandemic, the coalition stressed such attacks on press freedom revealed how the current regime “prioritizes an authoritarian rule.”

“It has aggravated his (President Duterte) criminal negligence to the rights and welfare of the people who put him to where he is as he busies himself orchestrating the state forces and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s trampling machineries,” it said.

It also pledged to continue to take up the challenge of providing accessible and reliable news and updates to the Filipinos.

“As bastions for truth, freedom, and justice, we vow to fight as a growing resistance against Duterte’s tyrannical rule. We will write to choose, especially as the pivotal need to expose a fascist dictator should be emphasized,” it said.

“As journalists, we should never forget that our golden creed and mantra is to serve the people and nothing less. Our moral compass as bearers of the ink should remain biased to the needs of the oppressed and abused. We will write, as we should, and as we need to amplify and serve the Filipino people,” it added.