Print Monitors

Another press release
THE MANILA Bulletin was a virtual collection of press releases and one-source stories during the last elections.
Take for instance its April 26 report, “Palace open to cash reward for barangay officials in Iloilo.” The report was based only on a statement of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who was reacting to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s offer to give Iloilo barangay officials a P10,000- cash incentive if they delivered a 12-0 vote for the administration’s Team Unity senatorial ticket.
“If it’s his own personal money, then it’s up to him to keep true to his promises. I’m sure he knows that what he’s proposing is legal,” Ermita was quoted by the Bulletin as saying.
The nine-paragraph story contained nothing but Ermita’s reaction to the issue.

Business as usual?
THE MANILA Bulletin and The Philippine Star used the same press release about the 7-Eleven convenience store chain. Extolling the chain’s financial success, the Bulletin published the story, “Franchisee initiatives help boost 7-Eleven store performance,” on the front page of its “Business Agenda” section last May 7. Two weeks later, it was the turn of The Philippine Star to use the same article with the same head. It was on the front page of its “Business As Usual” section.
Without a byline, both newspaper articles discussed how enhancements in some 7-Eleven franchisees “have proven to be the key to success in boosting sales and store performance for the rapidly expanding industry giant.” It provided contact details for those who want to apply for a store franchise.
The Star and the Bulletin did not inform their readers that the story was sourced from 7-Eleven.

Root of it all
FOR ITS elections special, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) wrote an in-depth report on how old issues continue to affect the credibility of the Commissions of Elections (Comelec). PCIJ traced the predicament of the Comelec to the way it has been presiding over the polls.
The report, “Ghosts of Past Polls Haunt Comelec,” discussed the alleged involvement of high-ranking Comelec officials in election cheating (and how some of them got away scot-free and were even promoted), questionable election results, and dubious party-list groups and nominees.

Wrong candidate
PHILIPPINE STAR executive editor and columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan got her facts about the Batangas political landscape wrong.
Discussing celebrities who fared poorly in the elections in her May 18 column, Pamintuan said: “Star power also failed Sanchez. His running mate, superstar Boyet de Leon, is losing to the son of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.”
Batangas board member Jose Antonio Leviste II, not actor Christopher “Boyet” de Leon, was the running mate of incumbent governor Armando Sanchez. De Leon ran under the United Opposition banner which did not have a gubernatorial bet.

Using speculation as news
UNDER INTENSE scrutiny, the exposés revealing election fraud in Mindanao looked more like speculation than fact.
A week before the May 14 polls, Malaya reported about vote buying in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao or ARMM (“Cheating operator teaches GO about facts of ARMM election life,” May 7).
According to the report, a “self-confessed election operator” advised Genuine Opposition (GO) candidates to consider buying votes in ARMM as more votes were still up for sale and GO could get them “at the right price.”
The unnamed source claimed that two million votes had been reserved for so-called “Malacañang babies,” composed of at least four Team Unity (TU) candidates who fared poorly in the surveys “but have been boasting to their supporters and campaign contributors that they will surely win.”
Instead of investigating the claim, Malaya turned to reporters covering TU. The reporters were asked who among the administration senatorial bets would stand to benefit from vote buying. The reporters speculated that the four “Malacañang babies” could be among Prospero Pichay Jr., Juan Miguel Zubiri, Michael Defensor, Luis Singson, Vicente Sotto III, Cesar Montano, and Teresa Aquino Oreta.

Preempting Bro. Mike
NEWSPAPERS LIKE The Philippine Star and Malaya jumped the gun on El Shaddai and Iglesia ni Cristo when they named the senatorial candidates likely to be endorsed by the two religious groups even before the formal announcement.
On May 11, front-page reports in the Star and Malaya quoted an unnamed source from Team Unity (TU) who identified the candidates—five each from TU and Genuine Opposition and two independent bets. The report said the formal announcement would be out on either May 12 or 13.
Adding confusion to the story, the Malaya report carried the statement of TU senatorial bet Ralph Recto that six candidates from the administration ticket would be endorsed by Iglesia ni Cristo (“It’s 6-4-1 in favor of TU for Iglesia,” May 10).
The reports were not verified with El Shaddai or Iglesia ni Cristo.

What’s going on?
IN A report last May 16 about the complaints of party-list candidates, The Manila Times defended Malacañang against party-list representatives Crispin Beltran and Satur Ocampo who accused the administration of scheming to make them lose their seats in Congress.
The Times said Beltran “unfairly accused the Arroyo administration of scheming to rig the results and causing the quick-count organizers and the media to give little coverage to the party-list groups.” The paper noted that Beltran, “without mentioning concrete proof,” claimed “the Arroyo administration would do all means possible to have progressive party-list groups kicked out of Congress.”
Unmentioned in the Beltran-Ocampo story was the fact that an important figure for the Times—its owner and Ahon Pinoy nominee Dante Francis Ang II—also ran for party-list representation. Ang had complained that major media organizations were not covering party-list election results. His newspaper, the Times, must have been the exception but its focus was on his personal bid. The paper had six reports or press releases favorable to Ahon Pinoy from May 11 to 16. The story about  Beltran and Ocampo’s charges against Malacañang also had a rather unrelated head: “Ahon nominee rues lack of attention on party-list representatives.”

Who did what to whom?
LAST MAY 19, The Manila Times reported the arrest of Rowell Quizon, grandson of comedy king Dolphy, by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation for the death of a man he and some companions allegedly mauled last December.
Describing the incident based on testimonies of witnesses, the report said, “Quizon along with several companions came to the celebration and beat up Vergara and lost consciousness.”
That Vergara was the one who lost consciousness became clear only in the succeeding paragraph.
The confusion was brought about by the word “and” which should have been “who.”

Juicy but still a rumor
WITH ONLY unnamed sources to back up its claim, The Daily Tribune again went to town last April 27 with a story that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was allegedly pressuring the Sandiganbayan to convict former president Joseph Estrada of plunder.
According to the Tribune, the information was relayed by Arroyo to a detained religious leader.  A “known businessman,” who added that promotions were being dangled before the anti-graft court justice, supposedly confirmed the story.
The story noted that promotions or appointments in the executive or in government corporations are common among judges or justices who render decisions favorable to the President.
To substantiate this hasty generalization, the Tribune cited as proof the case of Hubert Webb in which the presiding judge was promoted to the appellate court; the appointment of retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide as permanent Philippine representative to the United Nations; and the promotion as Supreme Court associate justice of Minita Chico Nazario, a former member of the panel in the Estrada plunder case.
The unnamed source claimed that the President had offered to free Estrada twice in exchange for his silence during the campaigns of Fernando Poe Jr. for the presidency and more recently, the Genuine Opposition for the Senate. The source said the President was “irked” by Estrada’s refusal, which prompted her to ask for his conviction.
After reporting on inconsistencies in Estrada’s case hearings and the suspicions of his lawyer Rene Saguisag, the report quoted Saguisag’s comment on Malacañang’s alleged conviction plan: “This (conviction) was said have been the order coming from someone very high and disclosed to someone very respected.  This reached our friend.”
The Palace was given a very small print space in the story through National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales who said Malacañang “will not intervene in their (court) jurisdiction.” (“Gloria pressures court to convict Erap”)

A story that satisfies
ON APRIL 24, BusinessMirror’s “Perspective” focused on the allegation that some party-list groups were being backed by Malacañang (“Marginalizing the party-list system: Are pro-Arroyo forces getting their way to Congress via the Comelec?”).
The story followed a chronology of events starting from calls to reveal the identities of the party-list nominees. It pointed out that while the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had claimed that keeping the public from confusion was the reason for withholding the nominees’ names, former Comelec chair Christian Monsod had said the identities were a matter of public interest because this would give voters a chance to scrutinize the nominees’ background.
The Comelec’s other defense—that it was the sectoral groups, not the nominees, that were running for congressional seats—was also pointed out as well as the process of accrediting party-list nominations. Ten allegedly dubious groups were identified in the report together with their brief histories as well as connections of their respective nominees to the administration.
The article enumerated possible reasons for Malacañang’s alleged attempt to field allies in party-list race, including efforts to block future moves to impeach the President.
The BusinessMirror took a swipe at Comelec’s quick dismissal of party-list groups perceived to be critical of the government, including Ang Ladlad, a group representing lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. The poll body considered as nuisance Ang Ladlad nominee Danton Remoto, who was described in the report as “a literature professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Fulbright scholar and respected writer.”
The story explained the law that created the party-list system, Republic Act 7941, and its stipulations.  It discussed the history of the party-list system in the country and the issues related to it such as the number of groups that won congressional seats in the previous elections to the low voter turnout for party-list groups that filled only 24 of the 53 possible party-list seats in the House of Representatives.

That’s information
THE PHILIPPINE Daily Inquirer’s “Talk of the Town” section helped readers see what the senatorial candidates stood for without wading through so much verbiage.
Published between April 22 and May 14, the section collated the positions of 29 senatorial candidates on issues and presented these in matrix form for easier reading and comparison. Among the issues tackled were the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), extrajudicial killings, corruption, and the shift from presidential to parliamentary government.

What are we in the press for?
THE PHILIPPINE Chronicle had no qualms about using the newspaper to advance its owner’s interests.
In its May 10 issue, the Chronicle helped spread God’s supposed message to all candidates in the midterm elections: snub the endorsement of El Shaddai’s Mike Velarde or “face certain defeat on Election Day.” Candidates who do not participate in prayer rallies “do not support the El Shaddai’s pro-God, pro-people and pro-life advocacies,” the paper said.
The story highlighted the “blessings” given by Velarde to the Pasig congressional and mayoral bids of Noel Cariño and Robert “Dodot” Jaworski Jr., respectively. Cariño happens to be the chair and chief executive officer of the Chronicle.

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