"TAKOT SILA KAYA NILA TAYO PINAPATAHIMIK"
Statement of Senator Risa Hontiveros on the guilty verdict on Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr.

"First, they came for the journalists. We don't know what happened after that." The attacks on the free press and journalists are a danger to our democracy and to us Filipinos.

This year alone, and while we're responding to a global pandemic, we have witnessed the shutdown of a far-reaching media institution and the weaponization of the law against a journalist doing unbiased reporting on extrajudicial killings in the country.

Today's conviction sends a chilling message to all: kung kritiko ka, pwede kang ipasara at pwede kang patahimikin.

I urge everyone to speak out. Dumarami tayo. We are complicit if we are silent.

Takot sila, kaya nila tayo pinapatahimik.

link: https://twitter.com/risahontiveros/status/1272340777998225408?s=20