My Life at the Palace

by RG Cruz

Just last June, I “graduated” from my three- year tour of duty as a Malacañang beat reporter of ABS-CBN. I left the beat with mixed emotions.

Malacañang was my first beat ever since I became a reporter. It nurtured me as a journalist, specifically as a political correspondent. I met most of my friends in media in that beat. I also met my first and so far my most loyal and most reliable stable of political contacts in that beat. I developed an analytical eye, a key requirement for every journalist and which is an even more important requirement for a journalist covering politics in Malacañang.

Of course, it must be said that there’s a certain sense of pride, of amor propio, of power, in being close to the corridors of power, getting a front seat to history, being the first to know what goes on, seeing the movers and shakers at their most powerful, most vulnerable and most unguarded, and deciding what goes on air and what doesn’t .

The Office of the Chief Executive in any country, in any democracy, is probably the most prestigious l beat among journalists, a place of honor reserved only for those who have already made the rounds of the other beats and who would presumably have acquired the necessary skills for the coverage it requires.

Definitely the Malacañang beat would be too complex for any junior reporter or entry-level reporter, or even a middle-career reporter to handle and so it can be very intimidating or even career breaking if not handled well. Indeed, some senior reporters dislike or see assignment to the palace beat as a kiss of death to their careers, especially since it can also be very boring, very toxic (depending on the occupant of the office)—a plague-like beat that should be avoided.

Covering ordinary stories/events can already be very tedious, very laborious, very dangerous, very complicated in terms of actual physical coverage and tapping a reliable network of news sources for information and contextual analysis. This ante is upped when you’re covering, chasing around, probing, asking the hard questions of the most controversial and most powerful person in the land, someone who can unleash the resources of government, including the arsenal of the military and police against you, if that person so desires.

Other reporters not covering the beat can very easily dismiss their colleagues in Malacañang as mere mouthpieces– as very docile journalists who have gotten too close to power for comfort to have a discerning and critical eye. In fact, during several instances in my three- year stint in Malacañang, the Malacañang press corps was at times described as such, because of what people see on TV during live broadcasts of press conferences with key palace officials.

But the courtesy that comes off docility doesn’t mean that all Malacañang reporters no longer ask the hard questions. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt though, most of us “spoke softly” albeit with a “big stick.” But beyond that we also had an educational role—to educate those we cover, to get them to open up more and help them be more transparent. Whether we succeeded in that role or not is definitely arguable. This is a mere textbook enumeration of that role. Having the kind of power those in the executive have can really change the people who wield such power. It was the job of the media covering the president to, well, for lack of a better term, “keep it real” for them.

This is an administration noted for its frequent denials, for statements that are often off tangent, and where interviews with the primary subject are quite rare. This is an administration where the very office of the Malacañang Press Corps has been evicted from the Palace itself and given only a small corner in the Palace compound where reporter access to the goings on in the Philippine center of power is very limited. This is an administration that has controversy for twin: an unpopular administration that itself feels threatened from all sides, for which the media are a nuisance it can do without.

From the Corruption scandals that hounded the First family and the cabinet, to the questions on the legitimacy of her office in 2001 and 2004, and the questions on her future in relation to perceived moves to ensure her perpetuation in power or at least her protection from prosecution post June 30, 2010, to the various impeachment cases and coup plots she faced, Malacañang-based media would have a very colorful story if it did a piece on the last 9 years of Philippine history. But it’s also these scandals that influenced them to behave like parties advised by their lawyers to shut up to ensure a credible defense in court, sacrificing in the process the government responsibilities of transparency and accountability.

In the process of getting for the public the stories that they require of us, the Malacañang-based media had to take on the role of managing the palace to ensure they still manage to adhere to transparency—getting them to open up and talk—somehow. In trying to get the story, reporters have in short forced the Palace to behave as it should as far as providing the public the information it needs is concerned.

Of course, the Palace has an in-house group of media handlers who presumably know how the media think and how the public responds to what the media report. It’s this group of senior cabinet members based in the palace who meet daily to manage the news agenda in their favor. It’s the job of Malacañang- based reporters to be the countervailing force to the palace’s bid for information management. But they must not burn those personal bridges with their Palace sources.

I will let the work that my colleagues and I have put out in our respective media organizations be the measure against which our performance of these functions can be judged by the public that’s our primary constituents. To paraphrase US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the best test of an idea is to throw it into the “free market place of ideas.”

I had wished that I be allowed to stay on at the Palace till the end of the president’s term next year. as many of my colleagues know by now, my bosses had other ideas. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the trust that I was accorded by everyone I worked with during my three-year stint in Malacañang. I will however say this—covering this president has been one helluva ride.

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