Politics and the Palawan Press

More than the usual problems
Politics and the Palawan Press
By Jose Bimbo F. Santos

2006 was not a good year for the Palawan media. It was the year Fernando “Dong” Batul was murdered, the first journalist to be killed in that province.
It was bad enough that the murder happened. What was worse was that an occasion for unity among members of media there became instead a cause for heightened conflict.
“On the day of Dong’s assassination, Lourdes Paet (of dyPR) went on air and tearfully criticized the ‘unorganized’ local press for lack of sympathy and support for Dong,” wrote Oscar Evangelista in a report of the Palawan Community Media Council (PCMC).
The PCMC, which was organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility and launched on June 8, 2002, was meant to provide the community with an organization for discussing media issues and for receiving complaints and recommendations regarding the press.
Conflict also ensued between dyPR, where Batul worked as political commentator, and Mayor Edward Hagedorn’s station, dyER. At first, Evangelista planned to form a committee that would settle the problem but this did not happen “simply because nobody was willing to be mediated.”
And then, weeks after the killing, Yasmin Arquiza and Jofelle Tesorio, both of the community newspaper Bandillo ng Palawan, left Puerto Princesa in fear of their lives. Bandillo ng Palawan, a community newspaper established in 1993, was geared toward environmental concerns.
“There are times when love for life has to take precedence over everything else,” Arquiza wrote in the September 2006 issue of PJR Reports.
What is wrong with the Palawan press?

Politics and the press
The Palawan media is a relatively larger community than most provincial media. There are seven print publications: Bandillo ng Palawan, Palawan Mirror, Palawan Sun, Palawan Times, Repetek, Palawan Life, and Detail magazine. There are four radio stations—dyPR, dySP (of GMA-7 network), dyER, and dwRM—and three local TV stations (dyPR, dwRM, GMA-7).
But politics has reared its ugly head in the Palawan press. According to Serge Pontillas, editor in chief of Bandillo, journalists have come to be regarded as spokespersons of politicians.
“People here think that when you are in the media, somebody controls you,” Pontillas said.
Because Palawan is a small community, two institutions that are supposed to be separate from each other tend to influence and depend on one another.
Pontillas explained: “Most of the (news) sources here are the politicians. If you have a news (story), your top source of information would be the politicians or government officials. So there really is a tendency for people to think that (a journalist) is working for that politician even if you’re just doing your job and getting information.”
Not only does politics erode media’s reputation, it also tends to create factions within the profession.
“Maaring ’yung padrino ko ay hati na ang puso sa ating dalawa,” as Claire Guluda, production manager of dwRM, meta-phorically put it.

In-fighting
In a province with a small market, journalism is also a costly enterprise.
According to Dempto Anda, a former Manila-based reporter who relocated to Palawan years ago and is now editor of the Palawan Sun, “Most of the income goes to the printing press, the rest to the rent. The staff has a very small salary. It is very common to see a reporter who also works as advertising agent for his newspaper.  But you can’t do anything about it because you lack revenues.”
Anda admitted that the situation breeds corruption. “Many politicians here give money to media… And that is also the cause of fighting among media members: some are against the practice, some need it, others don’t care,” he said.
With financial resources as a real problem, the quality of reporting suffers.
“You will seldom find broadcasting programs that would empower their audience to become more discriminating,” said Amy Abrio, a faculty member of the Mass Commu-nication department of the Palawan State University (PSU), the only school offering mass communications in the province.
Anda agreed. “My first observation here when I came in 1993 was that the media was inadequate in terms of the tools of reporting.”
But he added, “I think we’ve come a long way since then. In the broadcast sector now, competition has become strong and it is driving profes-sionalism. (Reporters are acquiring) a very good, healthy concept of scoops, of getting to the story first.”
With most print publications coming out weekly, the more aggressive type of reporting could be seen more clearly among radio stations. “You can see now the vibrancy of reporting,” Anda said.

Improvement needed
Still, Anda would be the first to say that the Palawan media could stand a lot of improvement. One area would be in developing the reporters’ familiarity with the special laws in the province and the policies of the provincial government.  Several special laws have been put in place in Palawan to protect its rich natural resources.
According to Anda, some media practitioners do not understand the meaning of such laws, while others are unaware of them.
Less than five years ago, the PCMC was established in Palawan to act as a complaints body of the public against the excesses and lapses of the media. To this day, many media practitioners are unaware of the role, or even existence, of PCMC.
It  doesn’t help either that some journalists have certain mistaken notions about the PCMC. One such notion is that the PCMC is trying to compete with the Palawan Press Club (PPC). Another is the misperception that PCMC favors certain radio stations, such as dyPR, a notion that has prevented rival station dySP from joining the council.

Work ahead
Clearly, something needs to be done for the Palawan media.
Anda said that while it might be too much to expect an “external body” like the PCMC to try to solve the problems of the Palawan press, the PCMC can start helping by giving training to raise the standards of media practice.  Many media practitioners in the province do not have formal training in journalism.
Ilustre, a former member of PCMC, proposed the setting up of a local accreditation program in Palawan. At present, only the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) has an accreditation program for the media. Members of the KBP that allow members to go on air without accreditation are required to pay fines, but lack of personnel especially in the province have made it difficult for the KBP to implement such standards.
Better training and accreditation would then be the first  steps toward building  stronger media in Palawan.

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