When a source denies your story
By Fe Zamora
A LIBEL case is best left to a lawyer to deal with. A denial from a contending party, like Malacañang or an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman who denies a report on a coup plot, can still make for good follow-up story. Fellow journalists who come out with a story denying your story because they were scooped are best regarded with sympathy. But what if the source himself disowns the story?
It’s not a “kuryente” (bum steer). “Nilaglag” (dropped like a hot potato) would be a better term. Like libel, a denial can be a jarring experience for any journalist. But it becomes a nightmare when the source himself makes the denial.
And it can happen to any journalist, even the most seasoned among us.
In the 1990s, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published a story about Kris Aquino’s plan to marry Robin Padilla. Down to the last detail, the story included the motif of the wedding, its venue, and the date. The source of the story was unnamed, but it was plain that it could have been no other than Kris or Robin.
Enter President Corazon Aquino. She denied that her youngest daughter was getting married to anyone. Kris and Robin followed suit. The writer was left holding the bag.
A hornet’s nest
In the 1980s, at the height of attempts by opposition groups to unseat Marcos, an opposition stalwart leaked to journalist Monica Feria their plan to hold strategy meetings in Hong Kong. Citing an unnamed source, Feria wrote the story.
The report stirred a hornet’s nest in the anti-Marcos camp which was appeased only when Feria’s source declared the story as baseless. In private, however, he apologized to Feria. “Naiipit daw siya,” Feria recalled.
In the early days of the Inquirer, a story by a young, promising reporter was denied by a congresswoman from Metro Manila. The legislator brought her complaint to an editor who lost no time in giving the reporter a dressing down. The reporter brought his father to the Inquirer to help defend his case. It must have been futile. The reporter resigned and eventually joined the PR industry.
In my 15-year on-and-off career as a journalist, I’ve had my share of stories that were denied. Covering the defense beat from 1989 to 1992, I suffered humiliation from irate generals who called me “irresponsible” and “unprofessional,” and my stories, “baseless” and a “brazen lie.”
One such story that was derided by the generals was that of an alleged series of meetings between then coup plotter Gregorio Honasan and the then Southern Luzon Command chief, Brig Gen. Alejandro Galido. My source was the wife of a general who could not sleep thinking that Galido, her husband’s boss, was involved in the plot. She would take a walk around the camp and I would join her. Naturally, she was an “unnamed source.”
The story was denied. But a year after, it was confirmed by the Davide Commission, the fact-finding body that investigated the December 1989 coup.
Retreating from a story
The scene was replayed when I wrote a story on the recruitment for a new coup in November 2002. The coup was supposedly set in December that year, or early 2003. The story was denied vehemently—and violently, I should say—by then Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes who castigated me on the phone. Reyes even ordered an investigation to find out who I’ve been talking to for the past two months. The military source who confirmed the recruitment alerted me about Reyes’s order. The source would only meet me again in Manila in February 2003 while the AFP top brass were in Baguio for the Philippine Military Academy alumni homecoming.
But the story actually came from a businessman who was invited to join the plot. The businessman tipped off an Inquirer editor who asked me to contact my military sources. The coup did not take place in December 2002 but in July 2003. When it happened, the military then confirmed it has been monitoring the recruitments since November 2002.
In July last year, I had another humiliating experience. The Inquirer bannered a plan by the Young Officers’ Union (YOU) to withdraw from the peace agreement it signed in 1995. The YOU was one of three rebel groups that mounted the 1989 coup. The agreement granted its members amnesty and full reinstatement in the military. The next day, YOU officers disowned the statement.
It would have been easy to unmask the courier and the source to defend my honor. In fact, their identities would have made for a bigger story. Experience, however, tells me to do otherwise. The best course of action is still to grin and bear it, for this too will pass.
Besides, these sources who deny my stories would later explain to me in private why they had to do it. Today, they are still my sources.
A stigma
What to do in case of a denial? Jay Ruiz of ABS-CBN admitted to feeling confused and even dismayed. Some editors would be unhappy, and that can be a problem. Knowing that you have well-placed sources could also irritate your colleagues, and that’s a form of pressure from your peers.
Some journalists simply shrug off the experience. No guts, no glory. A brush with shame before real fame.
But unlike most high-profile careers, journalism is not about fame or talent fees negotiated by managers. The job demands integrity, honesty, professionalism, adherence to the principles of fair play and confidentiality, the humility to admit mistakes, and a vow to live within one’s means.
Denial of a story often leaves a stigma that gradually recedes when the story is eventually proven to be true. But like a nightmare, the stigma comes back when a new story is again denied. n
Fe Zamora reports for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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