Genuine Opposition: Different strokes for different pols
Covering The Campaign
Genuine Opposition
Different strokes for different pols
By Toni Alejandro
COVERING THE senatorial campaign of the Genuine Opposition (GO) candidates has never been easy.
From day one, journalists assigned to cover opposition sorties were like headless chickens as they were kept clueless of the group’s schedules and activities.
When the opposition kicked off its campaign by holding a motorcade in some depressed areas in Metro Manila, only a few members of the media were able to cover the event because of the organizers’ failure to release the schedule and inform the reporters ahead of time.  It turned out that some members of the GO ticket were likewise not informed of the schedule. Only six of the 12 candidates joined the motorcade.
GO officials admitted that lack of funds prevents them from organizing and mobilizing the volunteers and the candidates, and from providing for the reporters’ transportation, food, and working area.
The lack of coordination among GO organizers and candidates became more apparent each day as reporters had to rely on the media handlers of the individual candidates to get the schedule of the group.
Media-savvy Loren
The staffs of former senator Loren Legarda and re-electionist Sen. Francis Pangilinan, before he was dropped by GO, were the most efficient in advising the media about their activities.
Perhaps because Legarda was a broadcast journalist, her staff knew how to deal with the press. They were always attentive and solicitous to the reporters’ needs during coverage.
Legarda herself goes out of her way to make reporters feel special—asking them from time to time if they had taken their lunch or dinner. During GO’s proclamation rally at Plaza Miranda, she accommodated interviews even when she was busy on the stage.
She also knows how to make herself front-page material. Aside from giving the usual handshakes and waving at the crowd, Legarda has shown herself to be ready for impromptu gimmicks. In a marketplace in Metro Manila, she got up on a makeshift stool to distribute goods to the people who had milled around her.
Escudero’s war chest
House Minority Floor Leader Francis Escudero is just as aggressive in campaigning for himself. A neophyte in the national elections, Escudero is one of the candidates with the biggest bulk of campaign materials that included anything from wallet-size calendars to stickers, posters, and shirts. This despite his claim that he is struggling with resources to run his campaign.
In an interview prior to filing his candidacy with the Commission on Elections last February, Escudero claimed he only had about P200,000 to P300,000 in the bank for his campaign. But even before he was proclaimed as a GO candidate, Escudero had already set up his own headquarters, mobilized his volunteers, and obtained the services of more public relations officers to help in his campaign. Hardly a day passes without his staff sending out press releases to media, including the online news organizations.
Like Legarda, Escudero walks the extra mile to make reporters feel comfortable around him. He makes it a point to engage in friendly banter with the press or to join them for lunch before a press conference. But reporters at the House of Representatives say that Escudero was not that solicitous with them before he announced and pursued his senatorial ambitions.
Before the campaign, many reporters at the House would complain how Escudero would ignore their calls and text messages. If ever he would reply, he’d give a one-line statement, which reporters considered too short to be used in their articles.
No PR problem
On the other hand, dealing with reporters has never been a problem for Representatives Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Alan Peter Cayetano.
Noynoy is the only son of former President Corazon Aquino and national hero and former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. while Alan Peter is the son of the late Sen. Renato Cayetano and brother of Sen. Pia Cayetano.
Aquino treats reporters as if they were his friends. An unlikely politician, he would rather beg off from an interview than be quoted as saying anything negative against anybody.
Unlike Escudero, Cayetano does not need to hire PR men because he handles the job himself. He personally calls up TV reporters to give his statements on issues.
Of all the GO candidates, re-electionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson has become the favorite news source of the media because of his quotable quotes.
Lacson and Legarda are often sought by reporters for their reactions on practically any issue. It is also true that certain candidates are quoted more often than others. And this has not escaped the notice of Sonia Roco’s staff.
Getting to know the media
A staffer wonders why Roco’s interviews are usually not reported while those of other candidates, who speak on similar issues, are quoted by media.
“We don’t feel bad about it. We just wonder why because all of them are interviewed but her statements don’t get reported. Well, maybe it also depends on how the questions were answered,” the staff member says.
Aside from Roco, another GO candidate, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, son of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., is having a hard time getting media exposure.
“It’s really a disadvantage for me not to be familiar with reporters. I know them by face but I can’t remember their names,” he admits.
Still, the young Pimentel keeps trying. In one sortie, he offered soft drinks to a group of journalists who had been follo-wing the GO candidates all day.
“That’s all I could offer them. I can’t afford to treat them to dinner at Manila Hotel,” he says.
And then there are those bogus reporters who, Pimentel says, have been trying to get money from him. While in Davao for a campaign, he received a call from a hotel asking him to pay the bill of some local reporters.
“Some people introducing themselves as reporters ate in that hotel and told the waiters that they were with me,” he says.
Other GO candidates struggling to get back into the limelight are former senators John Osmeña and Dominque “Nikki” Coseteng. Like Legarda and Lacson, they have been consistently attending the campaign rallies since day one.
Coseteng admits having to work doubly hard to im-prove her chances of winning. This was why she and Roco, who is also rating poorly in the surveys, decided to show up in a debate sponsored by the business sector despite the GO leadership’s decision to snub it.
In a contest where one has already invested so much time, energy and money, quitting is the farthest thing from anyone’s mind.  n
Toni Alejandro is the pseudonym of a reporter who has covered political beats for the past nine years. This year, she is covering the elections.
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