A FORMER government peace negotiator-turned-lawmaker has filed a bill in the House of Representatives that restricts members of the media from identifying using the word “Muslim” to describe a person who is involved in any violation of the law.
House Deputy Minority Leader Silvestre Bello III filed the proposed measure titled “An Act Prohibiting the Use, in Philippine Tri-Media, Police Blotters, and Other Government Agencies, of the Word ‘Muslim’ to Describe Any Person Suspected of Committing Any Felony When Reporting Such Felony.”
Bello wanted the media to refrain from using the word Muslim, because it connotes bias and negative perception against the ethnic religious group in Mindanao.
He once headed the government panel in the peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.
Bello said in initiating the bill, he wanted the media and other organizations “to be prudent and judicious” and “fairly and accurately report the suspected malefactor for what he did, rather than for who he is, especially his ethnicity and sect.” He said the use of the word Muslim by the media smacks of “prejudice and unwarranted notoriety for the Filipino minority group.”
“Why aren’t there any headlines of Catholics or other religious sect members suspected of committing similar criminal acts like ‘Catholic rebels torch town hall’ or ‘Police arrest Protestant bombing suspect’ or ‘Cops nab Aglipayan kidnapers’?” Bello asked. He said the use of the word Muslim in the media should be used with utmost prudence, fairness and accuracy.
“The only justifiable and legally tenable use of the word Muslim for violations of law should be when the criminal act was expressly performed by the suspected malefactor or criminal for religious purposes or with religious underpinnings, or purposely done to draw attention to their being Muslims,” he added. Bello said that Muslim relates to a person who follows the religion of Islam, a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the Koran.
Bello said the prohibition on the use of the word Muslim applies to all government and private institutions, law enforcement agencies and hospitals.