Looking back to move forward
ONE OF the misfortunes of 2024 was a decline in funds for the work that we do, including Media Times, which was a review of major news events and key developments in the past year.
CMFR has taken the short style, or the minimalist mode to fulfill this annual exercise, presenting brief reviews of four thematic concerns that were given the most prominence in 2024, the third year of the six-year presidential term of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.

That the chief executive does not figure so prominently in all the four stories reflects the laid-back style with which he has presided over the affairs of state and country, indeed over the public life of the people who elected him to lead. He remains a major actor nevertheless by simply being president. But he has yet to define the course of his presidency, articulate what he intends for his legacy, and set the strategies to realize them.
So far, the president has kept to his pleasing decorousness, displaying a desire to be nice, in contrast to the odious conduct and deliberate offensiveness of his predecessor. Even those not entirely enchanted admitted feeling great relief that they were not subject to the onslaught of vulgarity and obscenities.
There is a danger that this relief may lull the public into thinking that things are going well enough.
In 2024, Bongbong Marcos seemed to have sensed that he had won over enough of the population to simply coast. 2025 will test the truth of this.
The four subjects were chosen for the prominence given to these issues by the media in 2024: the Dutertes; the POGO industry; the West Philippine Sea (WPS); and climate change and weather-related disasters.
The Dutertes
The Duterte-Marcos partnership made up a formidable political team with names deeply embedded in the national consciousness. Its break-up was unexpected but evident as early as 2023. The discomfort in the relationship was mutually expressed, perhaps not by the principals but by family members.
The Dutertes however provided more fodder for the news mills, projecting both father and daughter at their worst. As the former president continues to face the threat of accountability for crimes against humanity in the course of the drug war, Rodrigo Duterte maintained a public profile as a way of retaining political influence to help prevent such an outcome.
Little has been said about Duterte and corruption; the question of ill-gotten wealth raised only by the most daring of political actors, mainly former senator Antonio Trillanes IV. But Duterte’s use of generous intelligence funds was known even while he was mayor of Davao City. As president, Duterte asked and received PHP20 billion for the Office of the President in 2017, of which PHP2.5 billion were confidential and intelligence funds. This information was not referred to in 2024 when news focused on Sara’s misuse of her own confidential funds.
Rodrigo Duterte’s hold on the public pulse has declined, but it has been his daughter and incumbent vice president Sara Duterte’s erratic and errant behavior that may confirm the family’s fall from grace and power.
And yet, “Dutertismo,” the projection of strongman, strong-arm leadership, including the deployment of violence against civilian citizens, continues to appeal to many Filipinos, casting a shadow on the prospects of Philippine democracy.
POGO and crime
Marcos Jr. figures in a major way in the POGO issue as he did order a total ban on the business, declaring his deadline for their complete elimination by the end of the year. At this point, there are countless POGOs operating under the radar, using restaurants and resorts as a front. Eleven thousand foreign nationals who came to the country to work in the industry are still at large and need to be tracked down – a massive problem that requires more than the capacity so far demonstrated by the Marcos administration.
The criminality perpetrated through the POGO industry exemplified the essential weakness of governance and law enforcement in the country. These issues have not been addressed by the Marcos Jr. in any of his well-written speeches.
In 2024, POGO emerged to be the menace that it had become in the country. Reports on these problems missed the larger context of China’s obvious interference in Philippine affairs. President Duterte had a Chinese national as his economic adviser. He accepted the escalation of harassment by Chinese against the Philippine Coast Guard and other fishing vessels in the WPS, Chinese exploration of the Benham Rise, even a national defense contract with a Chinese telecom linked to Beijing.
There was light talk when Duterte was in power about the country becoming a province of China. In reporting on POGO-linked criminality in 2024, media missed recalling that Duterte started it all. Journalists tracking Alice Guo, a foreigner from China who began a successful career in local government, did not mention that it was Duterte who allowed the country to serve as a haven for China’s online gambling businesses, along with its other evils. In 2024, journalists did not venture to test the chain of events as evidence of a larger, treacherous plan in the making.
West Philippine Sea
Marcos Jr.’s policy shift and stated intention to protect national sovereignty made him a major actor in the news on the WPS as this was openly hailed by business and civic organizations. His policy shift departed from Duterte’s submission to Beijing. But the grand talk did not involve strategic steps to build up international support for the Philippine cause.
The media have given this lack only minimal attention, giving President Marcos an easy pass with reports that highlighted expressed intentions without inquiring on the necessary steps on implementation.
This involves a crucial test for his leadership. So far, his initiatives have lacked the required rigor and vigor that will make good his promise to defend national security.
Weather disasters and climate crisis
Weather disasters make the fourth subject which dominated coverage in various months of the year, given the onslaught of 18 storms through 2024. The president’s response to disasters included command meetings with frontline agencies as well as consciously designed photo opportunities. Again, without good speechwriting to give him the words, his statements on these issues were banal.
The news on weather disasters did not always reflect a high level of consciousness of climate change even on the part of media. But a delegation of the Philippine government and civil society groups participated in the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan which added an extended range of issues to the coverage, including the compensation paid to countries like Philippines who bear the brunt of climate change impact. But only a few news organizations gave the global event and its relevance to the country and its communities the substantive coverage it deserved.
Meanwhile, reports on the chain of storms focused on weather conditions on land and the chain of disaster response, dwelling mostly on relief and rehabilitation which is done mostly by local government. While there was quantity, the reports made obvious the need for more content learning on the part of journalists and newsrooms.
Lack of knowledge and learning
The inadequacy in coverage of climactic events lies in the lack of content learning in the training of journalists. The lack of knowledge about issues holds back the necessary follow-up questions so experts can explain more about the changes that the public has to understand. This same lack prevents journalists from probing deeper into public misconduct.
News about complex matters involving government, business, law, and medicine has stirred some journalism academics to incorporate more academic courses in journalism training and education. Without this learning, journalists rely totally on other experts and sources to provide the analysis and interpretation that help the public form sound and reasonable judgments on the issues of the day.
There is a need for media development efforts to address this inherent gap. More institutions of learning abroad have joined skills training to the content learning so journalists can be better equipped to draw out the information that citizens need to know.
News articles more often than not report only what public officials or politicians in power have to say. The public deserves more than this rote recording.
Unfortunately, the capacity of mainstream media has been diminished by the pandemic and the continuing development of other communication platforms, as well as artificial intelligence.
2024 was Marcos Jr.’s third year as president, one year after the official end of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, there has been no assessment of the impact of the pandemic on the media community. We embraced the return to normalcy without knowing how much has been lost by different communities, including the media.
The decline of the mainstream press involves a major issue of democracy. The value of verified news is no longer obvious to many. The force of social media and new platforms continue to diminish the power of the press as Fourth Estate and its role as watchdog and public sentinel.
Like any other crisis, the media situation calls for more discussion, more dialogue among different communities so some kind of effort can be made to restore facts and truth as a value in public discourse and communication.
Before it is too late.