Monitors

Just another killing?
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED killings may have been on the rise but public outrage remains muted and media coverage scant.
When Aglipayan Bishop Alberto Ramento was killed on Oct. 3, three newspapers (Malaya, The Manila Times, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer) gave the incident front-page treatment. Newspapers reported on the subsequent police investigation a few days later, with the three aforementioned broadsheets giving more attention to it than the others. The report on the findings of the police was the top story in the Manila Bulletin on Oct. 7.
Aside from being a religious leader, Ramento was known to be a staunch critic of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This was why his death became a matter of concern to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, militant groups, and the Philippine Independent Church itself.
But the attention given to Ramento gradually dissipated and the killing was slowly eased out of the news pages as media shifted its focus to other breaking stories like the bombing incidents in Mindanao, the nursing exam controversy, and the automated elections issue. A week later, stories on the bishop’s murder became shorter. Photos of rallies expressing indignation over the murder, however, still made it to the front pages.
By Oct. 13, media coverage was reduced to photographs showing church leaders paying their last respects to the bishop.
In the opinion pages, Ramento’s murder was barely discussed. Only two newspapers, the Inquirer and Malaya, put out editorials on the incident. Four columnists wrote on the killing, suggesting that the incident might have been politically motivated and calling for a deeper investigation.
Although TV programs also reported on the bishop’s death, these were less frequent and shorter than the coverage provided by the newspapers. Programs showed brief video clips of protest rallies and the cremation ceremony, providing viewers an idea of the number of people who attended the events.
Despite the fact that it may have been one of the most significant political killings to have happened in recent time, the murder of the Aglipayan bishop was treated by most of media as just another death.

Getting into the holiday ‘spirit’
Some stories go with the season—like stories about All Saints Day. In the days shortly before and after Nov. 1, media reported about how Filipinos prepared for the traditional visit to the cemeteries and the government’s security plans to ensure their safety.
Such stories, however, have become as predictable as those about the first day of school. Journalists themselves get bored with the stuff. One of the hardest things to do during a holiday is to come up with a story that is fresh either in approach or substance.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer was able to do that with a two-part series on Nov. 1 and 2. The story was about the costs of mortuary services and memorial plans in the country.
TV Patrol World did a story on some politicians’ morbid practice of making the rounds in the cemeteries, ostensibly to check on security, while really preparing for next year’s elections.  The report aired the doubts raised by citizens about the newly found concern of their political leaders as well as the sudden abundance of freebies like mineral water, fans, toilets, and movable stairs—all with the name of the politicians stamped on them.
But some stories simply fail to, uh, die. Ghost stories, for example, made it as news in some of the Manila dailies.
On Oct. 30, The Philippine Star carried a story on some haunted places in Pampanga (“Youth on ghost-hunting craze in Pampanga”). The Star interviewed persons who claimed to have seen “strange apparitions” in an abandoned hospital in Clark Field. The article claimed that three ghosts in a supply room of an electronics firm were captured on video, which is available on the Internet.
The Manila Times did a similar story on Nov. 1 (“Are ghosts haunting the DOJ cottage in Baguio?”). Former and current justice officials recounted their frightening experiences during their stay in a purportedly haunted cottage in Baguio City. A photo of the cottage drew the reader’s attention to another “strange apparition.”
That same day, an Inquirer story warned against contacting the dead through a séance. The newspaper’s source was Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, director of the Archdiocese of Manila’s Office of Exorcism (“Exorcist warns against séances, ‘Spirit of Glass’,” p. A1).
The Inquirer story and its sidebar were both written by reporter Cathy Yamsuan. While the main story was written as a report, the sidebar was written as a first-person experience.
With a title reminiscent of Hollywood horror movies (“I was warned about the evil”), the sidebar went: “I had been warned that writing about the devil would not be a breeze. What I did not expect was how harrowing it would be, how emotionally draining, and how different from ordinary news coverage.”
Yamsuan said that while doing the story, she went through several experiences: 1) an inexplicable feeling of depression that drove her to tears; 2) her infant daughter’s high fever that simply disappeared in the morning; 3) three near-collisions with vehicles “that appeared out of nowhere on my way to interview the exorcist-priest”; and 4) learning upon arriving at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City, where she was scheduled to interview a priest, that a “‘man in black’ had told the guard at the gate that the interview was cancelled “because the Inquirer reporter is not coming.”
Yamsuan wrote that a priest had earlier told her that the devil would do his best to discourage her.
There is nothing more unscientific than dismissing the things we don’t understand. Learning begins by facing the unknown. But should a journalist lose her skepticism when faced with unverified occurences? For instance, was it possible that an unresolved issue had caused her depression? Did her baby’s fever go down inexplicably or did medication have something to do with it?  Was somebody driving under less-than-ideal conditions when the near-collisions happened? Couldn’t the guard say where the “man in black” came from and where he went after serving as an unauthorized messenger?
Some public affairs programs played to the viewers’ curiosity of the unknown, no matter if the reports were true or not. The Nov. 2 episode of Magandang Gabi, Bayan, hosted by actor Albert Martinez and Katherine de Castro, daughter of the show’s former host, Vice President Noli de Castro, reported on supernatural stories, including ghosts and other creatures. Magandang Gabi Bayan, which had long been axed by ABS-CBN, only went on air for the Nov. 2 episode
Oddities have a place in the news but they should not be exempt from journalistic skepticism and questioning that must accompany any other story.

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