Covering or seeking cover?: The curious cases of blocktimers in Negros Occidental

The running anchorman: Ray Carmona’s case

Carmona, a member of the Liberal Party, is one of the candidates for city council of Magbinuligay Kita Sa Kauswagan (Let’s Join For Progress), the local coalition formed by then Bacolod congressman Monico Puentevella who is also the group’s standard bearer.

The alleged attackers, Ang and Distrito, both running for re-election, are members of the Grupo Progreso (Group for Progress), the local political party led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia who is running as congressman for the city’s lone district.

Carmona is one of Bacolod’s veteran broadcasters who started his career with dyEZ Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod when it was then Radyo Balita, but was retrenched when Manila Broadcasting Company implemented its “Hating Kapatid” scheme in the mid-90s. He eventually became a blocktimer with Radyo Veritas and was recruited last year into Puentevella’s group and was also sworn in as a member of the administration party.

“This is the first time that an official actually went inside the booth and insulted me for taking up an issue against her,” Carmona told CMFR a week after the incident. He alleged that Ang and Distrito had with them 10 “burly men” whom he presumed to be City Hall employees.

Carmona’s offense was that he took up against Ang a day before the incident the allegedly questionable donation of P1.2 million for Class 1980, of which Ang is a member, of the Negros Occidental High School for the purchase of computers. Distrito moved for the approval of the request and the eventual allocation of the money for Ang’s batch.

“It was a public interest issue; that is why I took it up,” Carmona said as he insisted that he had documents to prove that the donation was “selective.” But Carmona admitted that when he took up the issue against Ang on February 20, he did not call Ang to get her side. “I simply issued an on-air invitation for her to answer me in my program,” Carmona said.

Luisito Berjit, Jr., another blocktimer at Radio Veritas, was the first to discuss the issue two days before Carmona did. “He heard about it then started to discuss it, too.” When asked if Carmona asked him for documents on the story, Berjit said he does not remember.

When asked if it is consistent with newsroom procedure and journalistic practice to get a subject’s side before the story of an alleged anomaly is broadcast, Carmona said: “you know how it works; if they want to answer they can just call us and I don’t have to really call her up before I come out with the story.”

Ang did call that day, Carmona admitted, “but I was running out of time—that is why I did not put her on air and I said it on air that she can call back the next day.”

“That is not true, he still had about 20 minutes left but he did not allow me to answer,” Ang told CMFR as he described Carmona’s commentaries as “damaging to my reputation and that of my family since he was insinuating that I was misusing government funds.”

Ang said she had not been listening to dyAF-Radyo Veritas since it was her impression that the blocktimers are partial to the opponents of Grupo Progreso. But on the first day that Carmona discussed the issue against her, a friend called and informed her about it.

“These are false, baseless, and fabricated accusations meant to damage my reputation as a person and as a candidate.” Ang said she called Carmona’s continued broadcast even after he had filed his certificate of candidacy as “unfair.”

She said she went to dyAF to answer the accusations against her and not harangue Carmona who had been “badmouthed” according to the other blocktimers of Puentevella, who also reported the incident over their programs. A replay of the exchange among Carmona, Ang, and Distrito revealed that Ang sounded agitated while explaining her side. She did not hurl any invectives against Carmona, however.

Asked why he did not go off air even after filing his certificate of candidacy for councilor last November 2012, Carmona said he makes a living through his radio show. “It’s my bread and butter, without it there is no other means.”

When this report was written mid-March, when the campaign period for local elective positions had not yet started, Ang said her lawyers were studying the possibility of filing a case against Carmona while dyAF’s management was also planning to file a complaint against Ang and Distrito.

No complaints have been filed so far.

Carmona believes that the “harassment” is not related to his job as a broadcaster. “It is politically-motivated. It’s about my being their opponent. They want to bring me down early,” he said.

Carmona is not the lone candidate-blocktimer commentator in the city. The other blocktimers who have also filed their COCs as candidates but continued to broadcast before the start of the official campaign period are:

COMMENTATOR	TOWN/CITY	RADIO STATION	POSITION SOUGHT
Alex Paglomutan	Bacolod City	dyRL-AbyanRadyo	Councilor
Marlon Solidum	Bacolod City	dyAF-RadyoVeritas	Councilor
Archie Baribar	Bacolod City	dyEZ-AksyonRadyo	Councilor
Andy Hagad	Bacolod City	dyEZ-AksyonRadyo	Councilor
Bong Dilag	Bacolod City	dyAF-RadyoVeritas	Councilor
Aladdin Salas	Hinigaran town	dyRL-AbyanRadyo	Councilor

All of them have not gone on air since the start of the official campaign period.

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