Media playing into the hands of protesters!

I’ve gotten a lot of reactions about the articles we wrote on the last Mendiola incident. Here’s a letter e-mailed to me by a reader from Hong Kong:

"Dear Mr. Avila, Shalom! I agree with your comment 100 percent regarding the drenching of Mr. Guingona, Tobias and company. They deserve it! Bishop Tobias was quoted in the inq7.net that the incident in Mendiola was a war with the Holy Spirit (on their side) and even Malacañang cannot win. I was disgusted with this Bishop because of several things.

"First, he was marching with the people they denounced before. Second, they should not be marching at all because of the nature of their calling which is to nurture people to be obedient citizens of the land. Thirdly, what he said is a blasphemy against God because the Holy Spirit will never go against any government. Their Bible says, ‘Every governing authority is ordained by God and people should submit to it.’ Book of Romans Chapter 13. My translation: ‘Whatever kind of government you have — good or bad — is what you deserve.’ Thank you and God bless you! Pastor Nes Baricante, Hong Kong"

I fully agree with Pastor Baricante… that we really get the government we deserve! Thanks to the present system of governance, nothing has moved in this country, which is hopelessly mired in destructive politics. As our good friend Sonny Mirasol texted me, ‘Our nation is in d pits dug by our rapacious politicians, exploitative upper class, unscrupulous businessmen, ignorant masses, materialistic middle class n a misguided media. Pray for our reeling country n its suffering people. Pray hard that RP doesn’t become RIP!"

Last Wednesday afternoon at the Session Hall of the Cebu City Council, we were chatting with a few media people from the local newspapers and they all asked me why the news editors in the Manila newspapers always give so much prominence to incidents like what happened in Mendiola. Their conclusion was clear… media too often plays up small incidents, making a veritable mountain out of a molehill! Sure, the Mendiola incident happened on a street in Manila… but the rest of the nation was peaceful!

They believe that media too often plays into the hands of protesters. In Cebu, whenever there are mass actions, protesters, without asking for a permit, always use the middle of the main thoroughfare, breaking all traffic laws so that traffic is snarled, making people believe that there are so many people attending the rally. All told, there are often less than a hundred huddled in the middle of the road, thus causing a huge traffic jam!

Our Cebu media friends also noted that many of these advocates of human rights also bring young children with them… even if those kids do not understand why their parents are shouting in the middle of the road. But the reason is crystal clear… when they are dispersed, these irresponsible parents use their own children as their "human shields," hoping that the anti-riot police would not touch them… and if they were touched, it makes a great Pulitzer Prize photo on the front page news. Human rights advocates violating the rights of their own children! In short, these mindless people use children to further their cause, and the media sings their tune!

As for that prayer rally in Mendiola a week ago, let me say it here again that it was not a religious procession to start with! Somehow, someone tried to switch words… now they say it was a religious procession when it was not! In a religious procession we do not use placards asking the President to resign! The whole truth is those marchers got what they really wanted, to get wet by water cannons so they could land on the front pages of the national dailies. If there were no water cannons, that rally would have been a non-event! For sure, we will see more of this because now it is clear that getting wet means getting on the front page news… thanks to the media!

On a final note, here’s another text message circling around about that stupid incident: "D bishops and priests like Reyes unworthy 2 qualify as saints, decided wyl still alive, 2 have d military canonize dem at Mendiola…wid matching unholy water!"

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We are indeed a forgetful people. Did you know that last Wednesday was the 61st anniversary of the Leyte Landings… when the American Caesar, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, finally stepped onto Philippine shores to declare to the waiting Filipino people, "People of the Philippines, I have returned!" When the Japanese military took over control of the Philippines from the Americans in the opening months of 1942, Gen. MacArthur made a stirring promise to the Filipino people, "I shall return," a promise that echoed in the hearts and minds of millions of Filipinos and thousands of Americans who were left behind in a Philippines controlled by the Japanese military.

But let me point out clearly that were it not for that incident that happened on March 30, 1944 when two huge H8K2 Kawanishi "Mavis" flying boats bearing Admiral Mineichi Koga and his Chief of Staff, Adm. Shigeru Fukudome, in the second plane, floundered and crashed in San Fernando, Cebu. Koga’s plane disappeared, while Adm. Fukudome was captured by Cebu guerrillas under the command of Lt. Col. James M. Cushing. He was the highest-ranking Japanese naval officer to fall into American hands.

Also captured by the Cebu guerrillas was the Z-Plan, Admiral Koga’s defense strategy for the Philippines and Japan, which were sent to Gen. MacArthur in Brisbane, Australia. With that bountiful intelligence harvest, the timetable to invade the Philippines was moved from Sarangani Bay in Southern Mindanao to Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944 instead of December that year. That in a nutshell is Cebu’s historical contribution to speed up the war’s end!

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THE BLACKBOX:

I attended the grand launching of the Amara development at the Grand Pacific Ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel last Tuesday evening. The Amara development is situated some 16 kilometers north of Cebu City in the town of Liloan. This place is famous for the white lighthouse that guides all the ships that come from Northern Cebu entering the Mactan channel. With this development, that beautiful lighthouse will now be surrounded by beautiful residences; after all, even before the launching, they’d already sold 92 percent of its phase I. It was also a great way of renewing old friendships with Mr. Fernando Zobel de Ayala who is a BMW rider like me. Yes, he still has his BMW GS 1150 and continues to ride whenever he finds the time… like the rest of us!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.