Foreign scribes arrive in RP to cover polls

Foreign journalists are arriving in droves in Metro Manila as if sensing "something big" will happen in today’s congressional and local elections.

However, the latest arrivals told The STAR yesterday they fear they could no longer get any accreditation after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) stopped issuing ID cards.

They are from Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), European Broadcasting Union, NHK, Associated Press Television, ARD, and Nippon TV.

Other foreign news organizations have Metro Manila-based correspondents who are members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).

They include news magazines Time, Newsweek, Asiaweek, and Far Eastern Economic Review; newspapers Straits Times, Jiji Press, Asahi Shimbun, and the Manila Daily Shimbun; and television networks American Broadcasting Corp. (ABC), and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

Some foreign correspondents told The STAR they are interested in the outcome of the senatorial elections, which many consider to be a virtual referendum on the fledgling administration of President Arroyo, while others said they expect trouble in "election hotspots" that the Comelec has identified.

The foreign journalists said they will extensively cover Metro Manila and nearby provinces, as well as "hotly contested areas" in other parts of the country.

Foreign news organizations sent correspondents to the country before President Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown during the 1986 people power revolt, and last January when scandal-tainted President Joseph Estrada was about to be driven out of Malacañang. – Rey Arquiza