Nasty spin
Jeers to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for its spin on a story that turned out not to be as shocking as the Inquirer made it appear.
The Nov. 3 Inquirer banner story quoted Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as accusing the Aquino administration of treating Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former president and currently Pampanga 2nd district representative, like a “sacred cow” by “setting aside P2.2 billion in public works funds for her district in the proposed national budget for 2011.” (“P-Noy hit on GMA pork: Arroyo is no sacred cow, says senator”)
“Why is she being babied instead of being punished? It appears that she is still well-connected with this administration,” the paper quoted Cayetano as saying. Cayetano added that “Arroyo was allocated the huge amount despite being painted by the Aquino camp as enemy No. 1 in the May national elections.”
Buried in the Inquirer account of Cayetano’s claims were the following facts (and, in parentheses, the Inquirer’s sources for these):
- The bulk of Arroyo’s P2.2-billion public works funds consists of foreign-assisted projects (Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chair of the House appropriations committee);
- Arroyo got the funds when she was still President. P564.359 million came from the national budget while P1.678 billion was in the form of loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Korean Development and Cooperation Fund. (Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello);
- Since the bulk of the funds was from foreign loans, the government has to follow the conditions of the agreements with Japan and Korea (budget secretary Florencio Abad);
Only Congress can realign the amount (Department of Public Works and Highways Rogelio Singson); - Congress could not slash the amount without risking penalties from foreign loan agreements (Arroyo spokesperson Ma. Elena Bautista Horn); and
- Contrary to the Inquirer headline, the P2.2 billion were public works funds and not pork, or, as it’s officially known, Arroyo’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation as a member of the House of Representatives.
In short, the Aquino government had nothing to do with Arroyo’s P2.2 billion, of which P564.359 is from the national budget and rest from Japanese and Korean-assisted projects for the second congressional district of Pampanga which she represents.
The Inquirer pointed out that Cayetano supported Sen. Manuel Villar in the last presidential elections. But the Inquirer still bannered his statements despite their obviously partisan and misleading attempt to discredit the Aquino administration.
In contrast, while Cayetano’s claims were reported in The Philippine Star on the same day, the story on them appeared on page 2 as part of another story about senators’ not sharing in the largesse of then President Arroyo: “Senators left out in P16.5-billion GMA largesse in the 2010 budget”).
In a display of better news judgment, the Manila Bulletin did not have any story on Cayetano’s claims on the same day.
On the day of its publication, the Inquirer’s online version of the banner story by reporters T.J Burgonio and Gil Cabacungan Jr. quickly became one of the most-read items in its website.
The following day, the Inquirer ran a follow-up story which included Malacañang’s reaction. Compared with the previous banner treatment of the issue, the Inquirer‘s follow-up report was placed on the right ear of the paper’s front page (“Palace defends Arroyo’s P2.2B: It’s not ‘pork’“) The follow-up story however still fell short of explaining that the new administration had nothing to do with Arroyo’s P2.2-billion funds.
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