Journalism Review Archives | Page 75 of 159

Nation’s eyes on Congress: Media should help!

WITHOUT MUCH public attention, Congress railroaded a pork-laden budget, but media held back questions both on the speed of approval and dubious cuts and allocations. Voting 257-6 with no abstentions, the House quickly approved the PHP4.1 trillion proposed national budget on September 20. Congress gutted the budget of frontline...

Martial Law Anniversary: Barely in the news, missing the obvious

SEPTEMBER 21 came and went this year without much press attention. The serious lack of interest stirs concern among those who lived through the period. More than four decades after Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial rule, another president with similar dictatorial tendencies...

Media on the return of polio: Missing the “why” and “how” of it

AFTER NEARLY two decades, the dreaded disease, poliomyelitis or polio, is back in the Philippines. On September 19, the Department of Health (DOH) reported the re-emergence of polio with the confirmation of a three-year-old girl in Lanao del Sur contracting the disease. On the same day, DOH also said samples...

African swine fever coverage: Minimizing panic, identifying lapses

THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) confirmed on September 9 that African swine fever (ASF) is in the country. Pigs had been reported dying of then unknown causes, some dumped in major waterways like the Marikina River. Cases of ASF have been reported in 12 areas in Bulacan, Rizal and...

The BuCor controversy: Media must broaden the discourse

HOW DO you solve a problem like the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)? The BuCor and the jail system it manages have been in dire need of solutions to longstanding and deeply rooted problems. The Senate began marathon hearings on September 2 following the scandalous abuse of the good conduct...

Marginalizing the marginalized: Delayed aid for farmers

IN 2018, typhoons and rice hoarding by cartels led to a rice shortage and soaring rice prices. Government responded with Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law which removed import quotas on rice and opened the local market to a flood of imported rice. Since its implementation...

Flagging security concerns about Dito-AFP deal

DITO TELECOMMUNITY Corporation, formerly known as Mislatel, signed on September 11 a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) which allows the company to set up telecommunication and internet facilities inside military camps. The consortium, which includes a company owned by the Chinese government,...

Not newsworthy: Duterte’s slur against Rappler journalists

THREE YEARS into his term, President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades against his critics and the independent press have become predictable and pointless. They don’t contribute to public understanding of the issues, and often discourage citizen engagement in public discourse or derails from more rational policy discussions. Calling people and various...

Reporting the missing link: BuCor official’s death and the GCTA racket

CHEERS TO Interaksyon for a quick follow-up, immediately reporting on the possible link between the death of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) official Ruperto Traya Jr. and the “aborted release” of former Calauan Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez. On August 27, Traya, Chief Administrative Officer 3 of BuCor, was shot dead...

The traffic problem: Can media help?

HOW WILL the government solve Metro Manila’s worsening traffic problem? The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is running out of ideas. And it seems all media can do is report the failed attempts, as traffic has worsened dramatically in recent weeks. The obvious reasons are the road building and...