The LP twerking scandal: Beyond the lewd and obvious

OTHER MEDIA organizations were quick to pick up the story when news broke about a group called Playgirls performing what many thought was a lewd show during the birthday party of Laguna Rep. Benjie Agarao on October 1. The party was also the occasion for the oath-taking of new members of the Liberal Party (LP). With the election season nearing, the incident became a veritable news bomb on social media, raising questions about how this reflected party ethics and the LP’s stand on women’s issues.

CMFR posted a monitor (“Distasteful—and exploitative,” Oct. 2, 2015) on the coverage of the event — from the online post by the Inquirer on October 1 to primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, GMA7’s 24 Oras, and TV5’s Aksyon) that aired in the evening on the same day. CMFR continued to monitor subsequent reports on TV (October 2-4), including those in the broadsheets Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and The Philippine Star.

Altogether, the media coverage presented the range of responses from across the political spectrum, including leading LP members as well as women’s groups.

Quick to condemn the incident were party members and other politicians. Other groups such as the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) and Gabriela also weighed in on the incident, with PCW releasing a statement (“PCW Statement on Lewd Dance Performance in LP Representative’s Event“) on October 2 commending those who had expressed indignation over the incident and calling for continued public vigilance.

The Inquirer and The Star also included the petition for the LP to issue a public apology and order an investigation on the conduct of government officials over Change.org in their reports. The petition cites Section 19 of the Republic Act 9710, the Magna Carta of Women.

The subsequent reports on TV on the monitored dates resorted to sensationalizing the offensive entertainment as it showed repeated and extensive use of clips of the group and a few men onstage dancing and twerking. On 24 Oras and TV Patrol, the footage of the Playgirls dancing was looped as background to the news anchor reading critical comments about the same.

In other reports, the group denied knowing then Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino but their manager admitted that they have performed before in a campaign for the LP. The Star also reported (“Not the first time for LP, Playgirls,” Oct. 5, 2015) on their performance for the LP in Malabon in 2013. The reports, however, still failed to identify who booked the group for the October 1 event or for any of the other events mentioned.

The LP has reportedly ordered an investigation into the incident, but nothing more was discussed and asked beyond that report. An October 3 report in the Inquirer (“Sexy show stirs storm; LP, Palace not amused“) quoted Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II: “Some are saying in the provinces that is really how they campaign,” — another claim which was not investigated further for accuracy and context.

Media quoted sources to say that the LP did not invite the Playgirls, that it was Tolentino who had booked them. The manager of the group was reported to have denied this as he was quoted as saying that Tolentino did not know the new batch of Playgirls. Some reports included claims that Tolentino had done the same for other occasions (“Playgirls: Tolentino got us for his brother’s campaign,” Rappler, Oct. 2, 2015). The reports did not attempt to verify who was telling the truth.

Reporting claims without questioning their veracity, the media failed to provide any basis for their credibility. “He-said, she-said” reports are of little value when these allow sources to mouth responses without verification of their truth or falsity.

Scandals like this offer the press a glimpse of the character of people seeking public office. More important, they present an opportunity to scrutinize election practices — such as hiring women for lewd shows — that contribute, for better or worse, to the state of the country’s political affairs, especially when taxpayers’ money might be involved.

But unless journalists debunk the political spin that invariably follows such controversies, ask pertinent questions and rigorously pursue the answers, the discourse that ensue from these political scandals will never rise beyond the obvious.

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On October 7, Tolentino announced he was resigning from his post as MMDA chairman. He also apologized to the LP for the scandal, to Agarao and his family,to his friends in Laguna, as well as to his mother. Tolentino had earlier denied full responsibility for the lewd performance but acknowledged his failure to stop the show, being the highest government official present. He asked the LP to remove him from the party’s senatorial slate and filed his certificate of candidacy as an independent on October 14.