Held Hostage to an Event
‘May Uzi si Mr. Ducat!’
Held hostage to an event
By Hector Bryant L. Macale
TELEVISION VIEWERS watched in horror last March 28 when Armando Ducat Jr., owner of a day-care center in Tondo, Manila, held hostage 26 of his pupils and four teachers inside a bus near the Manila City Hall. The national and international press monitored the 10-hour hostage drama, which ended after Ducat released the hostages around 7 pm.
In Manila, TV and radio reporters rushed to the scene and covered the incident as soon as it began. The websites of news organizations also quickly uploaded their reports on the case.
In the haste to cover the news, the press was unwittingly hostaged by Ducat as well. With the press at his bidding, Ducat’s long, seemingly well-rehearsed political speech was aired in its entirety. And so was the amateurish “negotiation” between him and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.
Over the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), one could hear ABS-CBN anchor Ted Failon, in his dzMM radio program, asking Revilla to keep his mobile phone on while talking with Ducat. Thus, Revilla’s “Pare, mahal kita” conversation with Ducat was broadcast live. Ducat got all the airtime he wanted, no thanks to an overeager press.
As tension ran high, dzMM interviewed Ducat live. He was again allowed to air his grievances in violation of the cardinal principle that giving hostage takers unedited, live access to media facilities amounts to the media’s surrendering control over how a story is reported.
The press as negotiator
The main problem with interviewing an armed hostage-taker live is that the press virtually assumes the role of negotiator, which properly belongs to the police. It also gives hostage-takers a platform from which they can say anything however inaccurate or even criminal. A simple question or comment from a reporter untrained to deal with such a situation could have also worsened the crisis.
The interviews delayed the negotiations with Ducat, a fact cited by a police official over ANC’s Media in Focus. One is reminded of the November 2003 incident when former Air Transportation Office Chief Captain Panfilo Villaruel and an aide seized the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal II control tower. Villaruel died while being interviewed live by broadcaster Arnold Clavio in his dzBB radio program.
However, the press, par-ticularly ABS-CBN, deserves some credit for the relative restraint of the coverage. ABS-CBN did not give in to Ducat’s repeated requests to have someone from ABS-CBN—the names of Failon, Korina Sanchez, and Julius Babao were mentioned—go inside the bus and do an interview, for example.
The press also pointed out the gaps in the police’s handling of the crisis situation, particularly the efforts of Revilla and administration senatorial candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson. It was also an occasion for media to look at itself and examine how it covered the event.
Whole-day coverage
Among the TV stations, it was ANC that covered the drama live from the time it learned about the incident. The ABS-CBN cable channel spent almost the whole day reporting on the case, as if there were no other news that day. While the hostage-taking incident might have been the biggest story of the day—complete with action and dramatic details of “scenes like those in a film,” as one TV program reported—certainly, there were other stories just as important and deserving of public attention.
Aside from ignoring other stories, the live coverage of the hostage drama simply dragged on. Most of the time, viewers could only see the parked bus and some of the schoolchildren inside. The updates were additional news reports and commentaries about the incident from the anchors who, however, creditably exercised restraint in their commentaries.
It was a different scene altogether near the city hall. The police failed to control the crowd that included reporters, cameramen, photojournalists, and kibitzers.
Some media organizations apparently forgot the basic rules when covering children in such situations. TV programs and newspapers identified some children and their parents in the reports.
Panicky anchors
GMA-7 anchors Mel Tiangco and Mike Enriquez were particularly panicky in their coverage of the situation. While Enriquez was repeatedly reporting on what was already evident in the footage, Tiangco frantically asked: “Mike, Mike, nakikita ko iyong kamay ni Chavit. Iyon ba iyong granada? Iyong kaliwang kamay? Granada ba iyong hawak niya, Mike? Mukhang iyon nga. Iyon, iyon, iyon!”
When the footage showed Ducat with an Uzi sub-machine gun, Enriquez exclaimed at the top of his voice: “Ba! May Uzi! May Uzi si Mr. Ducat na nakasukbit.” To which, Tiangco replied: “May Uzi?” Both were unsure if Ducat had two grenades. Had they been watching the coverage earlier, they would have known that Ducat indeed had two grenades, aside from carrying an Uzi.
Interestingly, some programs did not consider the hostage-taking the top story of the day. While the situation was still unfolding, IBC-13’s Express Balita reported about it toward the end of the newscast. It focused its first story on election news and the military’s claim that the New People’s Army has been recruiting and training minors. ABC-5’s Sentro reported first about election news before the hostage-taking incident.
The press and Ducat’s hostage incident in 2007 httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/held-hos… Media guidelines in a hostage situation httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-… #pjrreports #fb
RT @cmfr: The press and Ducat’s hostage incident in 2007 httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/held-hos… Media guidelines in a hostage situation httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-… # …
RT @cmfr: The press and Ducat’s hostage incident in 2007 httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/held-hos… Media guidelines in a hostage situation httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-… # …
RT @cmfr: The press and Ducat’s hostage incident in 2007 httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/held-hos… Media guidelines in a hostage situation httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-… # …
RT @cmfr: The press and Ducat’s hostage incident in 2007 httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/held-hos… Media guidelines in a hostage situation httpss://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-… # …
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