Senate okays bill declaring August 30 as ‘National Press Freedom Day’
The National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), the country’s biggest organization of active members of the press, welcomes the passage last January 27, 2022, on second reading, of Senate Bill 670 that declares August 30 of every year as “National Press Freedom Day.”
The declaration aims to honor the birthday of national hero Marcelo ‘Plaridel’ H. Del Pilar who is recognized as the ‘Father of Philippine Journalism.’
The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill in June last year.
“We would like to express our gratitude to Senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr., who introduced Senate Bill 670 in 2019 and who continued to press for its passage,” said NPC President Paul M. Gutierrez,
The bill titled “An Act Declaring August 30 of Every Year as ‘National Press Freedom Day” is one of the first bills filed by Revilla in the Senate after his election in 2019.
The National Press Club of the Philippines, along with the Bulacan Press Club (BPC) and Bulacan local officials meanwhile, have been consistent in their call since 2015 for honoring Gat Plaridel as the proponent of a free and responsible press in the country by making his birthday a national occasion of remembrance.
“With the current political climate in the country and the proliferation of confusing, if not fake and misleading, information, there is a need for the media and the public to be reminded of the importance of a responsible press,” Gutierrez added.
“Even as we laud Sen. Revilla for this initiative, we also call on his fellow lawmakers to extend the same courtesy to our national hero by passing the bill on third and final reading before the Senate ends its sessions a few weeks from now,” Gutierrez stressed.
Born on Aug. 30, 1850 in Bulacan province, Del Pilar was editor of the newspaper Diariong Tagalog. He was also editor of La Solidaridad, which became the mouthpiece for reforms of Filipino propagandists in Spain.
Recent historical researches also established that Del Pilar was the ‘mastermind’ behind the formation of the ‘Katipunan,’ a revolutionary society that struggled for Philippine independence from Spanish colonialism.
