Missed opportunity: One News does cautious interview with Marcos Jr. after GMA  snub

ON JANUARY 21, when 24 Oras reported on the GMA News Presidential Forum hosted by Jesica Soho, the plug highlighted that only four presidential candidates leading in the surveys had accepted the challenge. The report noted that former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. had declined the invitation for the January 22 interviews. Other media outlets picked this up and Marcos Jr.’s snub went viral on social media. 

Hours before the forum aired, Marcos Jr.’s camp released a statement saying that Soho was “biased” against the Marcos family. 

Marcos Jr.’s no-show and his camp’s complaint about journalistic “bias” called for media to push back. A politician has to learn to deal with supposed bias, and journalists will reflect any kind of bias against a candidate because their obligation is to the public, especially during election time, when voters will have to make a choice based on the information they have. One can  be anti-anything so long as it is based on facts.

Anyone else engaging Marcos Jr. should have called into question the candidate’s evasion of public scrutiny, and challenged the campaign’s branding of tough questioning as  bias. 

On January 24, One News’ news-talk program Sa Totoo Lang (STL) got first crack at a live engagement with Marcos Jr. after his controversial no-show. But instead of pushback, Marcos Jr. got to expand on the allegation against Soho, insisting that he did not have to explain anything about issues raised against him, the  Martial Law period, and  various other charges including the family’s unexplained wealth, as though  the media owed him special treatment. 

Also, Marcos Jr.’s Soho rant signaled the program’s cautious questioning when it came to other relevant issues.

The interview conducted  Jove Francisco and Maricel Halili ran for 35 minutes and 50 seconds long. Six minutes and 56 seconds or 19.3 percent was used to discuss his refusal to be interviewed by Soho, along with other candidates. The other 81 percent was dedicated to issue-based questions.

Responding to the no-show controversy

Addressing the issue, Marcos Jr. detailed his camp’s accusation of Soho being biased, claiming  that the journalist had treated him and sister Senator Imee Marcos negatively in past interviews.

In his response to a series of follow-up questions, Marcos Jr. claimed that “lahat hinaharap ko,” but also stressed that he would not waste time on media engagements unless he can focus on issues of the day and his plans for governance. He was specific about not entertaining questions about the martial law period.  

When later asked to define bias, the candidate stated “anti-Marcos” with no elaboration.

Halili also raised the merits of discussing unresolved issues ahead of presidential elections. But Marcos Jr. fell back on the same justification, saying those issues have been discussed repeatedly. “Why are we doing this?” he asked of people continuing to raise questions into martial law. The anchors promptly moved on to other issues.

Ultimately, the STL interview, though it raised the obvious issues surrounding the presidential candidate’s dodging of the media, proved more cautious rather than critical, as  if the journalists were trying to be careful about asking the hard questions in case the subject got too sensitive. And that reverberated throughout the whole interview.

Answering other issues

The next part of the interview was aimed at examining Marcos Jr.’s platform and future policies should he win the presidency. And as in the earlier part, the anchors seemed to tiptoe around hard questions and follow-ups to indulge Marcos Jr.  

CMFR found three prevailing themes of the questions asked during the interview: personal issues, party politics, and policy-related issues.

CMFR also noted each issue raised and assessed how the questioning favored Marcos Jr: positive when the interview did not challenge Marcos Jr’s claims using context from past cases, current laws and other references; and, negative when the issue was pursued overcoming Marcos Jr.’s dismissal. CMFR did not include the issues which were asked only for quick comments.

Personal issues

Questions on personal issues got eight minutes and five seconds of airtime. This included allegations against Marcos Jr. and his family. Here, the anchors asked the presidential candidate if he has a troll farm. While Marcos Jr. denied the accusation, Halili raised the suspension of 300 Twitter accounts associated with his campaign. 

The son of the late dictator was also asked how he will convince victims of  Martial Law to support his administration in case he wins. Marcos Jr. responded, by “presenting best plans for government and national unification.” No follow-up questions were asked which should have examined what specific policies he had in mind to achieve this. 

The interviewee was also asked to comment briefly on the issue of the Marcoses’ possession of the Tallano gold, which he quickly denied.

Party Politics

Soft questions surrounding Marcos Jr.’s process of choosing political allies got nine minutes and 39 seconds of airtime. He was asked about choosing Sara Duterte as running mate, choosing his future cabinet, seeking the president’s endorsement and identifying some of his presidential rival’s positive traits.

The anchors did not seek his reaction to other issues surrounding his candidacy including the disqualification cases filed against him.

Policy issues

Most questions centered on policies, taking ten minutes and two seconds of airtime. Two main issues were raised. 

On publicly releasing his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), Marcos Jr. expressed his willingness to release his SALN. But he also claimed that the exercise is only used for political mudslinging. No follow-up questions.

Marcos Jr. was also asked about his Covid-19 plans. Marcos rattled off the team’s donation of relief goods and PPEs across the country. Notably, Marcos did not talk of plans for Covid-relief should he reach the presidency. And surprisingly, the anchors did not throw the question back at him for clarification.

The anchors also asked the interviewee to quickly comment on other policy issues: political dynasties, the International Criminal Court’s probe on the war on drugs, and the abolition of the Philippine Commission for Good Governance (PCGG). 

The interview flow, in general, showed more positive slant in favor of Marcos Jr. despite Halili’s attempts to pursue several issues.

Marcos Jr.’s responses to the interview were general platitudes lacking concrete plans and platforms to back them up. He bannered unity several times in his answers but did not identify specific policies to achieve such a broad claim.

And when the anchors dropped the ball in raising important issues because of Marcos Jr.’s dismissive reactions, they allowed the candidate to drive the conversation to a direction favorable to him.

After Marcos Jr., Now what?

At the end of the Marcos interview, Halili and Francisco assured viewers that the program had been the first of a series, and that other Presidential aspirants will be invited to the show. STL should give other presidential candidates the same length of airtime given  Marcos, to ensure the program’s lack of bias for Marcos.

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