President GMA endorses use of media for social change - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

If there is anything that brought the downfall of the Estrada administration, it is the fact that, thanks to television, the whole nation witnessed the impeachment trial. The most beneficial lesson that we can learn from that experience is that radio and television can be the most potent instruments for nation-building. We have been wasting these two priceless resources. For years, radio, films and television programs have been used almost exclusively for programs that expouse lewd sex and senseless violence. In short, they are used to project the wrong values. We hope that from hereon, radio, film and television will be the popular mediums that will help our people know our history, our problems and our programs to, first, to establish peace and alleviate poverty; second, bring progress to the entire archipelago.

We have always believed that coincidences are God’s way of catalyzing events. By pure coincidence, the "National Soap Opera Summit Covenant" just ratified a program for the use of soap opera for nation-building. This was convened by the House of Representatives under Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., the Philippine Committee of the Global Legislators’ Organization for a Balanced Environment chaired by Isabela Rep. Heherson T. Alvarez and the Office of the Press Secretary through its Broadcast Bureau headed by Undersecretary Cerge Remonde.

Last Saturday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo endorsed the use of media for nation-building. The truth is that media has been underestimating our people. They believe that the so-called bakya crowd are interested only in sex and violence. The impeachment trial disproved that. The trial proved even more popular than the famous Mexican telenovela Rosalinda. We hope that the forthcoming trial of deposed President Estrada will have the same kind of coverage.

We don’t see why we cannot have true-to-life accounts of our problems that will be both interesting and entertaining. Television is the perfect medium to depict the plight of our poor, specially the street children.

The downfall of the Estrada administration and many facets of People Power II would be excellent material for TV programs. They could depict the mansions for the mistresses in contrast with the general poverty of our people and clearly show that "walang kumpare, walang kamag-anak at walang kaibigan" were just empty words. But most important will be the heroic response of our people to the crisis.

The true test of any program is the value that it projects. We are a heroic people. We again attested to that fact with EDSA II. That is what radio, television and film should be presenting to our nation – our greatness as a people.