TV Monitors

The truth behind the pol ads
Top Story reported on Feb. 8 a proposal of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) to check the claims made by candidates in their political advertisements. According to the report, the “truth test” will check the ads’ substance (the candidate’s platform and track record in the ad); their impact (the ad’s relevance to the lives of televiewers); truthfulness (substance behind the claims); and credibility (if the issues and solutions raised by the candidate in the ad are believable). The report added that there are no election guidelines for checking claims made in political advertisements.
The report would have been more complete if it got the reaction of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the proposal. Consistent follow-up of the report was in order since it said that the PANA proposal would be submitted to the Comelec and groups like the Advertising Board of the Philippines.

Political ad disguised as news
Primetime Teledyaryo is unabashedly campaigning for administration bets.
Last Feb. 5, the news program of government station NBN-4 aired the fearless predictions of administration congressmen Rodolfo Albano III and Isodoro Real that administration senatorial bets would certainly win in the 2007 elections. Both stressed that the candidates, particularly Michael Defensor, Prospero Pichay, and Juan Miguel Zubiri, were what the public needed for the Senate.
“Mas karapat-dapat ang mga ito kumpara sa kasalakuyang miyembro ng Senado na walang ginawa kundi wasakin ang pamahalaan at isang- tabi ang karaingan ng mamamayan (Defensor, Pichay, and Zubiri are worthier of public support than the present members of the Senate who do nothing but destroy the government and ignore the complaints of the people).”
Neither the opposition bets nor the current senators were asked for their reactions to the story.

Gov’t television as election weapon
When it comes to stories about people in the administration, Primetime Teledyaryo loses its sense of fairness and balance.
The newscast of the government station reported the criticisms of administration congressmen Eduardo Veloso and Eladio Jala against colleague Alan Peter Cayetano for asking presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo to sign a universal waiver granting the opposition solon access to Arroyo’s bank accounts abroad. The two described Cayetano’s challenge as a “worldwide fishing expedition” aimed at getting media mileage because he’s running for senator in the coming elections.
Still quoting the two pro-government allies, Teledyaryo said: “Malinaw pa sa sikat ng araw na nagsisinungaling ito sa ipinaratang laban sa Unang Pamilya (It is clearer than sunlight that Cayetano is lying with his accusations against the First Family).”
Cayetano was not interviewed for the report.

At face value
One of the criticisms against coverage of Philippine elections is the inordinate focus on personalities rather than issues. The Philippine Star, Bandila, and 24 Oras don’t seem to mind.
Last Feb. 14, Bandila reported on who is the better-looking spokesman—Genuine  Opposition’s Adel Tamano or Team Unity’s Ace Durano? Bandila tried to put substance in the story by comparing the backgrounds of the young spokesmen. The report’s title, “Labanan ng mga Gwaping,” however showed the newscast’s true mindset.
Two days later, it was the Star’s turn to do a Bandila. The Star noted that the two spokespersons “preferred to be spared from being compared to each other and asked the press to focus on the issues.” But the paper apparently would have none of that. It said “the two did not escape teasing from journalists, especially since elections in the Philippines are personality-based.”
24 Oras reported on the same topic on Feb. 20. The journalists covering them just couldn’t seem to get over the good looks of Tamano and Durano. Yet the report said the contest between the two was not about looks.

A simple answer
GMA-7 was able to give another explanation why candidates’ campaign posters proliferate outside the common poster areas despite the Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) warning of disqualification.
On Feb. 16, 24 Oras said some policemen, the Comelec’s partner in implementing the regulations in poster areas, did not know which are the common poster areas. Police officers interviewed for the report said they have not been given any instructions insofar as designated common poster areas were concerned.
In a surveillance of two Manila districts, the news team also found out that some designated poster areas did not have space anymore for campaign materials.

The devil in a detail
In its Feb. 15 telecast, 24 Oras pointed out a weakness in the Omnibus Election Code, which could perpetuate cheating in the polls because of potential conflicts of interest in the operations of Commission of Elections (Comelec) field offices.
The segment “Imbestigador ng Bayan” reported that all Comelec field agencies are housed in local government offices. Local governments also finance most of the local Comelec offices’ daily operation expenses. This is in compliance with Section 55 of the Omnibus Election Code which mandates local government units to provide space for Comelec field offices.
Former Comelec commissioner Mehol Sadain admitted that this could compromise the independence of Comelec officers as they might develop unnecessary relationships with local incumbents.
According to 24 Oras, every year Congress asks for Comelec inputs about laws that need amending. Comelec’s supposed proposals to have that law amended have been ignored.

The feng shui factor
Can feng shui really decide the forthcoming elections?
Apparently, GMA-7 thinks so. A Saksi report last Feb. 8 interviewed a feng shui expert who said some senatorial candidates have an edge over other candidates by virtue of their lucky birth dates.
According to the report, the “less fortunate” candidates could level the playing field by using this year’s “lucky” colors in their campaigns and have their headquarters and campaign materials placed in strategic locations—of course, to be determined by the feng shui expert.
Giving the report a semblance of credibility, the same expert advised candidates to be honest, diligent, and have a clear platform of governance to enhance their luck. If only Saksi got the clairvoyants of Quiapo to predict who will win the elections, the newscast’s story would have been complete.

So young, so disillusioned
While media coverage of the elections has often focused on the candidates, ABS-CBN’s newscasts looked into the voting population, particularly the youth. The reports of TV Patrol World (Jan. 30) and Bandila (Jan. 29) said most of the voters in this year’s elections would not come from the youth sector, even though it makes up the majority of the country’s population. This conclusion was based on a McCann-Erickson study that said many young people would not participate in the elections because of their failure to register or their disappointment with politics in the country. The reports also identified the issues that concern the youth.

Now, that’s news
Sentro aired a story that was ignored by most news programs—the violent conflict at Hacienda Velez Malaga in Negros Occidental. The newscast, aired on Feb. 1, reported that armed men fired their guns at several farmers who were agrarian reform beneficiaries occupying the property of landlord Roberto Cuenca. One farmer was killed while several others were wounded.
The broadcast showed  video footage of the actual shooting. Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials who saw the video from the peasant group Task Force Mapalad were “shocked.” They promised to work for a peaceful settlement of the issue.
According to the DAR, the farmers were beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and have been the owners of the more than 100-hectare land since 2002.
But Cuenca disputed this. He said he had already given the land to its “true” beneficiaries. This was contained in an alleged memorandum of agreement he signed with the DAR and the farmers.

Dissecting a bill
Sentro gave an in-depth report on the anti-terrorism bill in its Feb. 15 newscast.  It discussed the changing definitions of terrorism in the crafting of the proposed Human Security Act of 2007. Experts were interviewed on the implications and the nuances of the legal definition.
Lawyer Ibarra Gutierrez, a human rights advocate, and Amado Valdez, dean of the University of the East College of Law, criticized the definition of terrorism in the  law because it defined the intention of terrorism as “creating or sowing a state of danger, panic, sowing fear or chaos to the general public, group of persons or particular person or of coercing or intimidating the government to do or abstain from doing an act.” The broad meaning might be used for personal purposes and suppress citizens’ legal actions such as rallies, they added.
For University of the Philippines professor Randy David, there is no need for an anti-terrorism law. He said the  bill was filed in blind obedience to the wishes of the United States.

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