Media Review
June 1 to 15, 2021
Every two weeks, CMFR will provide a quick recap of the media coverage of the biggest stories or issues, noting the same slips that our monitors have been doing. We intend this as a quick mapping of news, providing a guide for journalists and identifying gaps in reporting, the lack of interpretation and analysis as necessary. This section also hopes to engage more public attention and participation in current events, and for them to learn the practice of media monitoring. It is after all the public that serves as the best watchdog of press power.
Vaccine and power run short: Media quiet on who’s to blame
AS THOUGH the pandemic had not made life miserable enough, power outages have added to the difficulties that the public must bear. With so many unemployed and experiencing even worse poverty, the economy continues to contract; the World Bank slashed its growth forecast for the Philippines from 5.5 percent to 4.7. Top the dismal first two weeks of June with a case of police killing a civilian in yet another feud in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the IATF has given the go-signal for travel between the capital and holiday destinations in MGCQ areas; even as vaccine supply issues continue to vex the immunization program. Although President Duterte had always said only the vaccine can end the pandemic, his team canât seem to speed up the process, as the program remains slow on its fourth month. While pushing for more economic areas to open, the Duterte administration seems unable to do anything about expanding vaccine coverage which would make economic activities safe for people protected against the virus.
Ironically, there are now about 16 different vaccines approved or authorized for limited use around the world, eight of these already given EUAs in the Philippines. But the vaccine âczarâ has had to apologize once again, holding the short end of the vaccine supply line. Early this year, before the vaccine rollout, he had announced that Pfizer and Astrazeneca would be available in February, which did not happen.
Even with such blatant examples of incompetence, media have refrained to directly call out the failures as such. There has been no attempt to hold individual officials or official agencies accountable. With less than a year from elections, media reports have held back from connecting the woes of the nation to the regimeâs failed leadership.
Vaccine woes
News coverage followed stories about the dwindling supply of vaccines in NCR, LGUs in provinces asking for more doses and the IATFâs own admission that it missed the target for senior citizens and persons with comorbidities. But no journalist has attempted to identify the root of the problem. Is it the LGUS? If so, which ones have failed; and what can be done to assist them? Or is the problem the failure of the IATF to establish a system of distribution according to various needs.
Since the program has had to hold off administering vaccines, journalists should find out the reason and inform the public. Media have not probed to establish whether the problem is mainly the global shortage of vaccines.
At the most visible level, the vaccine âczarâ himself has been unable to secure supply lines. In the June 2 edition of Headstart with Karen Davila, Galvez said that he expected nine million doses in June. But on June 10, Galvez apologized for another vaccine shortage: citing logistical challenges, he said 3 million doses that should have been delivered in May would only be shipped this month. Inquirer and CNNPhilippines.com reported the apology and explanation. Neither of the two probed what these logistical challenges are.
Meanwhile, as only a small percentage of A2 and A3 (seniors and those with co-morbidities) have been inoculated, no reports have checked on the need to speed up the inclusion of those in the A4 category (economic frontliners). The latter group serves as a driver of economic activities.
The period in review saw COVID cases recorded in the thousands nationally. CMFR cheered ANCâs Dateline Philippines for a comprehensive analysis of the shift of cases to the provinces, particularly in Mindanao. This exercise should encourage other media to provide more substantial coverage.
No clear explanation on blackouts
With the spike in the heat index, May brought on the plague of rotational blackouts on parts of Luzon and the NCR. While the Luzon grid was at the critical Red Alert level on May 31, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was in the news for convening a meeting of the PDP-Laban in Cebu City,a task ordered by the president amid the power crisis.
Media reports mapped the outages, defined the terms used for levels of power deficit, mapping out affected areas. But none have attempted to establish the chain of accountability, naming the agencies involved in the different areas of the power system: regulation, generation, transmission/distribution and maintenance. Only 24 Oras got close enough to interview Cynthia Alabanza, the spokesperson of NGCP, the governmentâs power distributor. But the report did not get a clear explanation of the power failure, except as Alabanza described as âunscheduled power outages.â
Typically, administration officials resorted to finger pointing. Cusi blamed NGCP for its failure to secure enough power reserves. NGCP objected to being the “scapegoat,” pointing out that “the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) law prohibits us from putting up plants or celling power as does our concession and franchise.”
It was the kind of coverage that showed up the mediaâs lack of knowledge and familiarity about power and energy issues. It is not an easy subject. But the issues are urgent enough for the media to seek experts who understand the highly complex system, starting with the EPIRA law. The column of Romeo Bernardo in BusinessWorld on June 13 laid out the challenges hounding the sectors and agencies involved in managing power crises.
One thing is for sure. The frantic call for opening up the economy has fallen on deaf ears in government itself. The higher use of power during the summer months is an annual phenomenon and should have been enough to alert the NGCP to check the systems so that these do not suddenly fail and cause âunscheduled power outages.â
Small businesses would like to be able to increase operations, but this would be impossible given unreliable power supply.
Another âdisrespectedâ police killsÂ
On May 30, Police Master Sergeant Hensie Zinampan was caught on video arguing with 52-year-old Lilibeth Valdez, including his pulling her hair to shoot her in the neck, killing her instantly.
The incident prompted public outcry and revived the hashtag #PulisAngTerorista, as netizens recalled the case in December 2020 when Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca fatally shot Sonya Gregorio and her son, Frank, also after a heated argument. A few weeks earlier, an alleged scuffle during a police raid in a cockfighting arena resulted in the fatal shooting of Edwin Arnigo, an 18-year-old with autism.
Media coverage framed the stories as they do other crime stories, describing circumstances surrounding the killing; including the side of the police and the victimsâ family. News accounts recalled the similarity between the cases of Zinampan and Nuezca. Some reports focused on police saying there should be more frequent neuro-psychological tests and body cameras to prevent such incidents.
Interaksyon.com noted the previous victims of police brutality. TV Patrol cited Carlos Conde, Senior Researcher of Human Rights Watch: âIlang beses na âtong nangyari at sanaây natugunan na ng PNP (This has happened so many times that the PNP should have already addressed it).â
But overall,the simplistic reporting failed to emphasize the pattern of abuse of power by the police. No report referred to President Duterteâs coddling of police, despite similarly egregious cases in the past.
While the media correctly alerted the public to the glaring human rights violations when it reported on the case of Nuezca, reports did not sustain this crucial context in reporting Zinampanâs killing of Valdez.
*** CMFR notes how timid the media have become in calling out government failures that have weighed more heavily on the already suffering public. It is clear that the pandemic has made it easier for government to evade the press and their questions â and that many public officials have treated the isolation imposed by COVID-19 a paid-for vacation courtesy of the Filipino people.
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