An incident becomes a war

By Eleenae Love Ayson, Joanna Martine Bayani, Erwin Colcol,  Mary Joy Fernandez, Maverick Russel Flores/CMFR Interns

IN THE afternoon of June 18, a group of University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman students armed with baseball bats and lead pipes attacked two others inside the campus. Soon after, friends of the victims came to their aid, only to face an assault by another group of students.

The victims were immediately brought to the hospital and were later identified as members of the Alpha Sigma fraternity. Five of the suspects, on the other hand, were subsequently arrested and reported to be members of Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity.

Reports on the incident instantly spread on-and off-campus, as media organizations hastened to retell the story. Some of them, however, were quick to speculate that a “frat war” was brewing, despite the lack of official statements and confirmation from UP and police authorities.

CMFR’s media monitoring from June 18 to July 1 showed that inaccuracies, sensationalism and harming the rights of the suspected attackers only painted a confusing picture of the event  instead of a complete and enlightening one.

Inaccuracies

The first reports of the incident inaccurately and exaggeratingly characterized, rather than reported, the events that transpired.

GMA-7’s 24 Oras on June 18 immediately categorized the attack not only as a frat-related incident, but a frat “war.” Their report carried the teaser “Gera ng mga fraternity o frat war sumiklab sa UP Diliman na naman (Frat war in UP Diliman breaks out).” The teaser of the news report itself read, “FRAT WAR: 2 sugatan sa frat war sa UP-Diliman campus (Two wounded in UP-Diliman campus frat war).”

Meanwhile, Saksi, on the night of the incident, and TV5’s Aksyon sa Umaga newscast, (Saksi, June 18, FRAT WAR: 2 estudyante, pinaghahataw ng baseball bat ng mga lalaking naka-bonnet sa loob ng UP Diliman [FRAT WAR: Masked men in UP Diliman hit two students with baseball bat]; Aksyon sa Umaga June 19, FRAT WAR: Dalawang fraternity sa U.P. Diliman, nag-away sa loob ng campus [FRAT WAR: Two fraternities in U.P. Diliman fight inside the campus], ) the next morning, described it as a rumble between two fraternities, without sufficient information from authorities to back that claim.

“Sumiklab naman ang kaguluhan sa UP Diliman kahapon sa pagitan ng dalawang fraternity (Two UP Diliman fraternities in row),” the Saksi report said.

No information from official UP sources had been released when these reports aired.  UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan issued a statement on the afternoon of June 19. He tagged the incident as “frat-related,” saying all the students involved were members of fraternities, whose names he refused to mention in order to “respect their privacy.”

ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol followed suit with a report on June 19 with the teaser “RAMBOL: 4 sugatan sa frat war sa loob ng U.P. Diliman campus (BRAWL: Four hurt in a frat war in U.P. Diliman campus).”

“Sugatan ang apat na estudyante ng UP Diliman nang gulpihin sa loob mismo ng campus. Frat war umano ang dahilan. Arestado ng lima sa mga sangkot sa rambol (Four students were hurt in an attack inside the UP Diliman campus citing a frat war. Five people involved in the brawl were arrested),” the report said.

Despite Tan’s characterizing the incident as “frat-related,” the media continued to use  the words “war” or “rumble” without contextualizing the story.

Alpha Sigma alumni president  Roel Pulido later made this clear in an interview with GMA News. He said his fraternity did not attack  Upsilon. (“Alpha Sigma alumnus says UP frat wars a ‘treacherous attack’”, June 26)

“We wanted to clarify, and this is proven by the records of UP and the records of the UP police force, that there was no rumble. There was just a treacherous attack on our frat,” Pulido said.

Aside from inaccurate reporting, some media organizations also tried to pull sources and information out of thin air, to support their own allegation of an ongoing confrontation between the two parties.

A June 22 report by GMA-7’s news program Balitanghali (Apat na miyembro ng Upsilon Sigma Phi pinatawan ng preventive suspension ng unibersidad [The University gave four members of the Upsilon SigmaPhi preventive suspension], ) speculated that the incident was possibly rooted in “campus politics,” emphasizing the fact that candidates from the involved fraternities had faced off in the recent University Student Council  elections.

“Campus politics ang posibleng pinag-ugatan nito dahil noong nakaraang student council elections ay nagtapat ang mga kandidato ng Upsilon at Alpha Sigma, kung saan ang Upsilonian ang nanalo (Campus politics might be the possible reason for these attacks. Last student council elections, Upsilon and Alpha Sigma members were competing candidates. The Upsilonian won).” The report did not cite any source.

Although Upsilon  sources are yet to release a statement, there was no indication in the reports of any effort to contact them directly. One report (“Frat official denies ‘active role’ in UP attacks,” June 23), even passed off a supposed search for a source from Upsilon.

The report said  the Star had tried to reach Upsilon through political party UP ALYANSA, which it said was an “affiliate” of the frat.  UP ALYANSA Chairperson Arjay Mercado denied in a text message to CMFR on June 24 his party’s affiliation with Upsilon.

“The chairperson of the student council, JP delas Nieves, who is from our party, is a member of Upsilon. But Upsilon is not affiliated with Alyansa,” Mercado said.

The report also said “Alyansa, as well as its chairperson Arjay Mercado, did not respond to inquiries by The Star.” However, Mercado said in the same text message that the newspaper never  approached the party for comment or information.

Sensationalism

What’s worse about the issue is that it was arguably not even  of national interest, being campus news. However, over the period monitored, The Philippine Star and the Philippine Daily Inquirer published more or less ten reports on the incident, with the latter publishing three of these as top stories in the Metro section.

In addition, the Inquirer nitpicked unnecessary details instead of just reporting the story itself.

In a June 25 Metro banner story, the Inquirer focused on a supposed eyewitness account which said that the accused fratmen took selfies while leaving Quezon City Police District Station 9 after posting bail. (“Frat men take selfies upon posting bail”)

“They purportedly did this as a lawyer asked them to hurry up and leave while there were no reporters or photographers around,” the report said.

Moreover, the witness who  claimed to have seen the group taking selfies was  not named in the first report. The online version of the article, however, was updated and described the witness as a “policeman who witnessed the release.”

GMA News was the first to show the mugshots of the arrested Upsilon members.

In showing them in this light, GMA News, as well as the Inquirer (“Hunt for more UP frat men heats up,” June 24, 2015), depicted the suspects as criminals, whereas they should have been presumed innocent until proven guilty.

TV 5’s Aksyon, on the other hand, refrained from showing the faces of the suspects and focused only on their body parts on its June 19 report.

ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, in its first report on June 19, did not directly show the faces of the suspects, but included clips of them inside the cell.