Provincial council summons newspaper editors for publishing a poem

PROVINCIAL council officials summoned the editors of Bandillo ng Palawan, an environment newsweekly, for the publication of a poem critical of the provincial government.

An Oct. 4 letter by the provincial council addressed to Bandillo’s editorial board summoned the newspaper for “matters relative [sic] to the poem entitled [sic] “AY DIOS KO” which was published under the section of Balitang San Vicente of Bandillo ng Palawan (Sept. 25 – Oct. 1) will be tackled” during the “Question and Answer Hour” of the council’s regular session on Oct. 10.

“Ay Dios ko! (Oh my God!)” was published as part of a paid advertisement of the municipality of San Vicente who has been longing for the repair of their municipal road. The three stanza poem hints at embezzlement of funds siphoned from finances initially intended for the municipal road’s construction. The road as yet remains neglected by the public government despite years of clamor for its repair. Residents have dubbed the road ‘Ay Dios Ko,” as one would cry while traveling through its rugged terrain.

Bandillo’s editors initially planned not to attend the “question hour” and instead just write a letter to the Council. “We believe that we will not be able to shed further light into the controversy regarding the publication of the poem,” Bandillo initially said in their letter to the council.

But wary of the potential repercussions of a no-show in the forum, Bandillo editorial board member Sergio Pontillas went to the provincial board meeting just the same. But the forum was postponed because of the absence of a municipal representative.

The full explanation of Bandillo regarding the poem’s publication will come out in its editorial this week.

Some portion read: “We believe that publication of the poem was a way of documenting in the public realm at least, that there was once a dissenting opinion about the way the planning for the resolution of the problem was handled.  It was only coincidental that the poem was published in a paid page by one of our clients who also hold a stake in the controversial road.  The bottom line is, it was a valid expression of opinion, no matter how scathing or malicious as some parties have interpreted certain lines in the poem to be. Several members of the editorial staff of this publication are veterans of prestigious national writing workshops, and a quick perusal of the poem indicated to us glaring unliterary-ness of the work.  So be it.  We believe that real voices of the subaltern are often raw and quite artistically unadorned.  We in the public realm should not be extremely sensitive when certain opinions go against our thread of thinking.”

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