What Senate reshuffle?

JEERS TO the Daily Tribune for a misleading and biased report on the alleged Senate reshuffle to replace Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as committee head for delays in passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

The June 19 Tribune report “Noy moving to strip Marcos of panel post over BBL delays,” quoted Marcos as saying he “received a report” on the alleged plan to remove him from the Senate Committee on Local Government which reviews the proposed BBL.

Marcos said “I just received a report that there was a mention of a reorganization. What was stated is that ‘we may have to reorganize the Senate to (ensure) the passage of the (BBL).”

The article said that rumors on the Senate reshuffle were “bolstered yesterday with no less than President Aquino getting himself implicated and supposedly prompted by the delay in the approval” of BBL. Marcos is drafting a substitute bill to what he sees as an “unconstitutional” law.

However, there was no mention of any Palace statement on the issue. It was not disclosed where the report came from, or even if it was from an anonymous source.

The report merely assumed that Marcos and his  claims were true;  there was no clarification that those were just allegations, despite lack of proof and the Malacañang response.

The quote Marcos allegedly got from Aquino did not say that anyone in particular would be removed. In fact, what “reorganization” meant was never clarified in the report.

The Standard (“Marcos shrugs off threat of Senate shuffle over BBL,” June 19, 2015) and The Manila Times (“Marcos bares plot to recast Senate,” June 18, 2015) also reported on Marcos’s statement.

The Standard reported the “reshuffle” as a “threat,” but quoted Marcos as saying he did not know what the President meant by the alleged statement, nor did he know where it came from, while the Times said the claim was only an “alleged plot.”

The Standard and Times reports both relied on Marcos’s statement as the only source.