Biased reports

Jeers to The Daily Tribune for two biased reports.

One was on graft issues allegedly involving high-ranking officials of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

“President Aquino’s straight path mantra and his supposed efforts to get rid of corruption in government seem nothing but empty boasts as graft practices in the form of fund conversions, which have been assailed in the previous administration as a source of corruption, persists in several national agencies such as the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) while the Commission on Audit (COA) appears to look the other way,” was the lead of the April 25 story, “Noy’s COA men helpless amid PCG ‘conversions’”.

The report used as sources two civil society groups who call themselves Mga Alagad ng Pagbabago (English) and United Young PCG Officers. The two groups hit the Commission on Audit (COA) for being silent despite a letter of appeal they supposedly sent separately to the audit body to investigate the allegedly rampant corruption in the PCG involving the illegal conversion of P800 million.

“Maybe because of our long history of corruption, the COA people – its chairman, commissioners and resident auditors in PCG – already forgotten to do their job, and that’s why we are more than willing to conduct for them a refresher course: Audit 101,” the Tribune quoted Mga Alagad as saying. The name of the group’s representative was not mentioned in the report.

Mga Alagad also named five companies allegedly used for the conversion of PCG funds.

The newspaper failed to get the side of either COA or the PCG. Neither did it get the side of the five companies allegedly involved in the anomalous transaction.

The second biased story involved alleged malpractices in some airlines.

In its April 20 story, “Lawmaker calls for a stop to budget airline’s malpractices” Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento said that there are “mounting complaints about the shabby treatment of passengers availing themselves of these budget fare promos.”

The story mostly quoted Sarmiento who expressed the need for a law to stop airline malpractices. Sarmiento mentioned complaints such as overbooking, passengers’ being denied boarding, flight delays and cancellations.

The airlines being complained about were not interviewed. Neither were the airline passengers who were allegedly complaining about the services.