Monitors: Print

More than just remembering
The Manila Times made the anniversary of Philippine History Week from Sept. 15 to 21 more meaningful by coming up with interesting reports that featured topics like the controversial Makabayan education curriculum that lumped the study of Philippine history with other subjects, the controversial “Order of Kalantiaw,” the debate over Independence Day, the history of the decline in the standards of the teaching profession, and the growing interest of students to take up History. Other reports also touched on how the culture of “memorization” and the Makabayan curriculum proved to be “the antithesis of patriotism, nationalism, and one’s sense of national identity.”

Coups in context
The Philippine Star provided context to its banner story on the anti-coup drill in Camp Aguinaldo last Sept. 2 (“Surprise coup drill conducted,” Sept. 3). More than just reporting what happened in the simulated coup, the paper provided readers with background to understand why the military had to conduct such exercises.
“The Philippines is no stranger to coup attempts and rumors of instability after popular revolts that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo’s immediate predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001,” the report said. Also noted were attempts of some military officers to oust Arroyo, who has been under intense political pressure following the “Hello, Garci” scandal.

Doppelganger stories
On Aug. 23, Malaya reported Sen. Joker Arroyo’s claim that Malacañang has resurrected Executive Order (EO) 464 since Memorandum Circular (MC) 108 “practically empowers public officials to ignore any summons to a congressional probe.”
EO 464, an order issued on Sept. 28 last year, prohibited executive and military officials from appearing before congressional hearings without the president’s permission. This story appeared on page A2 of Malaya with the title, “Memo 168 a resurrected EO: Joker” and a reporter’s byline.
On page A6 of the paper on the same day, a story appeared under the headline, “EO 464 resurrected as MC 108: Joker.” Except for some revisions, it was the same story as the one on page A2, minus the byline.

Un-merry mix-up
The following day, Aug. 24, Malaya reprinted a report from the South China Morning Post on the libel charges filed by presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo against journalists. The story, “Mike adds libel suit to wardrobe,” saw print on two pages of the same issue: A1 and A5.
There was one difference, though: the story on page A1 was attributed to Raissa Robles of the Post while the one on page A5 identified the writer as Maria Ressa, head of the news and current affairs group of ABS-CBN.
It took Malaya a good five days to apologize for mistaking one journalist for the other. It kept mum about the double stories, too.

Time-warped column
Lito Banayo, Malaya columnist and Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s spokesman, appeared confused and lost in his Aug. 26 column. He wrote about topics like Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s plan to switch to the majority coalition; the road users’ tax; Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz’s crusade against jueteng; and the remains of retired army captain Rene Jarque who was to be buried on that day. But these events and developments happened a year ago.
Banayo apologized and explained the mistake in his Aug. 29 column: “A funny thing happened to this space last Saturday. Inadvertently, I mailed a year-old column done August 27, 2005 in lieu of what I had stored in my document file as intended for August 26. My apologies to our readers.”
Apologies accepted. But doesn’t Malaya have an opinion editor who checks on the columns?

Adding to Nicole’s trauma
On Sept. 20, several broadsheets carried blown-up photos of “Nicole” on their front pages. Although her face was partly hidden, “Nicole” was still identifiable. To add insult to injury, the Manila Standard Today banner declared: “US Marine calls Nicole a prostitute.” The headline was a reference to the testimony of one of the four US Marines accused of raping Nicole in November last year.
Quoting accused Chad Carpentier, Standard Today focused on the “flirting behavior” of “Nicole” when the alleged rape took place. The significant development in the case—the justice department’s decision not to grant “Nicole’s” request to replace the state prosecutors—was buried in the story.

Bias by omission
Was it a statement against censorship or a case of biased reporting?
The Manila Bulletin carried on its front page the controversial decision of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to give an “X” rating to the documentary on the life of former president Joseph Estrada entitled, “To live for the masses” (“Erap newsreel maker appeals MTRCB ruling to Malacañang,” Sept. 13). Estrada’s camp questioned the ruling and the Bulletin used only the statements of lawyer Rufus Rodriguez, who claimed that the documentary was not libelous and that it was banned because of the perception of being “anti-Arroyo.”

Manila Standard Today cannot seem to hide its bias against critics of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Reporting on calls for Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano to quit his post after failing to substantiate his accusation of presidential spouse Mike Arroyo’s alleged hidden wealth in Germany, Standard Today noted that the congressman did not issue an apology for his “erroneous claims” (“Cayetano quit call heightens,” Aug. 31). Since the statement had no attribution, the Standard Today appeared to have passed judgment on the issue without an investigation.

habits seem to die hard. There are occasions when The Daily Tribune doesn’t bother to get the side of anyone from the administration.
In a report where it described the House Committee on Ethics as “buying time” for postponing the hearings on the libel suit filed by the Arroyo men (First Gentleman Mike, his son Mikey, and brother Iggy), the Tribune also accused Malacañang of “cooking up a major game plan to ensure that the expulsion case against the Taguig-Pateros congressman (opposition Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano) would proceed without any hassle.”  The problem: not a word was quoted from either the committee or the Palace.

Small consolation
In its Sept. 15 banner story, “Gloria rushes to save Bolante,” The Daily Tribune did get Malacañang’s side.  It quoted Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who refuted claims that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was discreetly helping former agriculture official Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante who was arrested in the United States.
Ermita’s statement, however, came in the 22nd paragraph of the story that had a total of 27 paragraphs. The report focused mostly on allegations by Sen. Panfilo Lacson against Arroyo whose presidential campaign allegedly benefited from Bolante’s supposed diversion of millions of pesos in agricultural funds.

Looking for a stereotype
When gay rights group Ang Ladlad filed for party-list representation in Congress, media focused on the group’s reasons for wanting to join the 2007 elections. Manila Bulletin, however, had something else in mind.
Apparently expecting “cross-dressers” to march to the Commission on Elections, the Bulletin report said reporters and photographers covering the event were disappointed to see only the group’s chair Danton Remoto in a “no-frills” arrival (“Ladlad group seeks voice in Congress,” Sept. 16). A dismayed photographer, the report noted, covered the event “as if he were assigned to cover a gay beauty contest.”

It’s bad enough when law enforcers view women in rather feudal terms. It’s worse when media think the same way.
Manila Standard Today identified 10 alleged sex workers who were arrested during a raid at a hotel in Quezon City (“Police hit erroneous case filed vs. pimp,” Aug. 28). Using the remarks of the arresting officers, the story described the women as “fair, tall, and very sexy.”

Debunking myths
In a story on Sept. 14, the Philippine Daily Inquirer challenged the stereotypical image of Batanes as a province that is helpless against the ravages of storms. It discussed how media’s portrayal of Batanes as having constant inclement weather combined with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s (PAGASA) use of the province as a reference point for incoming storms have scared away tourists and investors.
The Inquirer reported that while people in some regions of the country have to limit their daily activities once PAGASA raises storm signals, life goes on in Batanes with flights usually continuing as scheduled.
The report also touched on the lifestyle of the Ivatan’s, the indigenous people of Batanes who have learned to live with the weather in the region.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer came out with an investigative report on the paradox of the country’s high unemployment rate amid many job opportunities.
On Sept. 5-6, the Inquirer reported on the “job-skills mismatch” in the Philippines, where 2.93 million remain unemployed even as 600,000 jobs are up for grabs in the technical-vocational (tech-voc) training sector.
Because of the job hunters’ preference for white-collar jobs, vacancies were not being filled and the number of unemployed college graduates rising.
The report also explained the “ladderized” education system—the Department of Education’s solution to address the mismatch. Through this system, academic units taken by students in tech-voc courses would be credited in regular colleges. Taking tech-voc courses would allow students to become immediately productive and save up for college while filling up the job vacancies in various industries.
The paper gave another side to the story, however. A sidebar on the current emphasis on tech-voc courses sourced from the Kilusang Mayo Uno showed that the emphasis on tech-voc courses was actually detrimental to Philippine industrialization. The system supposedly relies heavily on foreigners providing jobs for Filipinos instead of the government creating job opportunities.

A grain of salt with surveys
So according to The Philippine Star (“Poll: Pinoys disenchanted with Senate favor shift to parliamentary system,” Sept. 6, p. 10), a political think tank called the Center for Issues and Advocacy conducted a survey and found out that 47 percent of 1,200 respondents polled nationwide favored a unicameral parliamentary system. Thirty-six percent were against it and 17 percent were undecided.
The results of the survey were just as intriguing as the organization that conducted the survey. For one thing, the survey results contradicted the findings of more familiar organizations like Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia. For another, what is the Center for Issues and Advocacy—or CIA—anyway? The Star did not say. Those nosey enough to ask questions have come up with the information that the center may have links with former president Fidel Ramos, a Charter-change advocate.
[A list of what to look for when reporting about surveys is available in the September 2006 issue of the PJR Reports.]

Refracted glory
Adamson University’s hulking center Karl Kenneth Bono, in an action photo with Mark Canlas of the University of Santo Tomas, was wrongly identified as Rabeth Al-Hussaini by The Manila Times on Sept. 4. The erroneous attribution became even more bizarre because Hussaini is not even from the Falcon’s nest; he is, in fact, a center for the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles. Worse, the Eagles did not even play that day.

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