APEC 2015 Coverage: Still Inadequate After All These Years

WHEN THE Philippines hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit the first time in 1996, it was touted as a coming out party for the administration of then president Fidel V. Ramos. Ramos anchored his socio-economic programs on “Philippines 2000,” a platform aimed mainly at trade liberalization designed to push the Philippines to “newly industrialized” status by year 2000. Some local sectors, needless to say, were bound to be affected.

Fast forward 19 years later, to November 2015, when the Philippines hosted the summit for the second time. The objectives remained the same: enhancing the regional economic integration agenda; investing in human capital development; building sustainable and resilient communities, and fostering micro, small and medium enterprises’ (MSME) participation in regional and global markets.

The last item is significant for most Filipinos, particularly those from the poor and middle classes. Getting out of poverty, after all, is a goal for millions of Filipinos, and entrepreneurship, we’ve been told, is key to achieving that goal.

One would think then that the Philippine press would step up to the challenge by finding value in Filipinos’ pursuing their entrepreneurship spirit and reflecting that in its coverage of the recent APEC summit.

No such luck, however. Just as the press performed below par in 1996, publishing reports “with little effort to explain repercussions on affected local sectors,” (“A Step Ahead: Covering APEC,” PJR Reports, October-December 1996, p. 17-20), it performed dismally in 2015. The press failed to explain—with some exceptions—the significance of the business forum to the common Filipino.

Best Foot Forward

The Aquino administration certainly put its best foot forward for APEC 2015. It pulled out all the stops—in the case of its traffic scheme, quite literally—and used every resource at its disposal to ensure that the months-long activities would be a success. APEC meetings were held in different places across the country, including Bacolod, Bagac in Bataan, Boracay, Clark in Pampanga, Cebu, Iloilo, Laoag, Subic and Manila. The press, however, gave scant attention to these meetings, going all-out instead only in its coverage of  the two biggest  APEC events: the CEO Summit and Economic Leaders Meeting, which were both held in Metro Manila on the third week of November.

CMFR monitored six newspapers (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, The Philippine Star, BusinessWorld, BusinessMirror and Malaya Business Insight), three primetime news programs (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, GMA-7’s 24 Oras, TV5’s Aksyon), and selected TV programs and news websites from November 9 to 20. In the week leading to the summit, the media’s coverage concentrated on the security measures, traffic management, and preparations for the activities to be held in anticipation of the arrival of delegates. The press also covered the government’s “clearing operations” in the streets of Manila, flight cancellations, traffic conditions and the public’s feedback on the matter, among the latter the anti-APEC protests, as well as entertainment for the visitors.

It was during the week of the CEO Summit and Economic Leaders Meeting, from November 16 to 19, when more APEC-relevant reports were aired, but these were mostly “calendar stories” that merely mentioned what had happened and what was expected to happen in the course of the week.  These included meetings between President Benigno Aquino III and other leaders in the sidelines of the APEC event, the statements of leaders on such issues as economy, climate change, territorial disputes, and terrorism in light of the recent attacks in different countries such as France, Lebanon and Syria.

Priority Agenda: MSMEs

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) were identified as one of the issues in the priority agenda and a key contribution of the Philippines to the summit. MSMEs were mentioned repeatedly in the reports by the three major dailies (Inquirer, Bulletin and Star) as well as the three business dailies (BusinessWorld, BusinessMirror and Malaya). But these did not provide substantial information useful to these business people, let alone the general public.

There were barely any reports that did extensive or insightful discussions on MSMEs—what exactly these are and how ordinary Filipinos can pursue whatever opportunities they present, to name two issues—in both the major newspapers and the business dailies. On the latter’s part, perhaps, no extensive explanation or discussion about MSMEs was made because their target readers are businessmen or people who are already knowledgeable or well-versed in similar topics or terms.

Information about the MSMEs was limited to statements lifted from President Aquino’s welcome remarks during the SME Meeting on November 17. Other than that, information on MSMEs remained limited, with the term occasionally being mentioned in reports in reference to what had already been discussed in the forums such as the summit’s agenda, calls by economic leaders to promote inclusive growth and underscore the significance of the participation of MSMEs in global commerce. Reports also mentioned the Boracay Action Agenda (BAA), drafted on May 2015, which aimed to globalize MSMEs, but the explanation for this was also inadequate.

Notable Exceptions

For its part, however, Rappler published on November 11 an explainer on the APEC: what the summit was all about, who were participating, what was going to happen, and what the Philippines was getting for hosting the event. (“Apec what? An explainer on Manila’s high-profile week”).

Another exception was GMA News TV’s State of the Nation with Jessica Soho which produced reports that discussed the topics in the Economic Leaders’ Meeting such as strengthening the measures for service-oriented sectors and small industries in order to achieve inclusive growth, and the challenges that affect the global economy. The show provided more substantial information by defining what micro-scale enterprises are and how these will benefit from the APEC.

Exchange of Ideas

Being a venue for the exchange of ideas that can potentially be used for policy-making and, ultimately, to provide practical, clear and useful information, the APEC Summit is important not only to the government and top business enterprises but also to smaller industries and entrepreneurs.

But, given the complexities and the technicalities of the agenda presented in the annual summit, the Philippine press in general failed to make the summit not only relevant but understandable to business people from the MSME sector.  (It even failed, for instance, to underscore one simple fact: that agreements reached during the summit are non-binding but carry significant implications on the decision-making of member economies and, ultimately, on the general public.)

By focusing its coverage on “soft news” as well as on the shrill criticism of the government’s logistical preparations and their impact—mainly on traffic congestion—the press failed to highlight the summit’s significance to the general public and how common Filipinos will be affected by it, for better or worse.