Foreigners to own media? / The Bush-Kerry debates

If this government wants to stand on the right side of history, it better shelve – pronto! – its stated intention to open up Philippine media to foreign ownership. I don’t know but this news hit me right on the pit of my stomach, that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could nibble on this idea. She has enough worries of her own without having to flirt with the notion that the Rupert Murdochs of planet Earth, can just sashay in and gobble our newspapers, television stations, and radio networks.

Dammitohell, the notion that a foreigner, my future boss, can look over my shoulder while I write this column, is downright obscene and utterly ridiculous. No foreigner should be allowed to dictate en flagrante what news is good or bad for the Philippines. Only we Filipinos should decide that. The moment we give in, we surrender our last precious heritage, whatever is left of the freedom of the press.

And whatever is left of our democracy goes down the laundry chute. This is proof of the intended folly of this government to sell the last decent thing we Filipinos still have – the freedom to speak our minds. The foreigner, with profit as his compelling motive, virtually takes over as a colonizer, to brainwash the Filipino, capture his balls.

Maybe that’s what the government wants.

At this stage of the ballgame, the GMA administration knows it can never really control or manipulate media. So far, it has been successful in making the bulk of media toe the line. I suspect a lot of money and favors have poured in, which is not surprising because many of my colleagues in media are corrupt. But the time might come when media will have to wake up, and assert itself because the government will wallow deeper and deeper in the mud. By that time not all the glitter of pirate gold can quell a media mending its ways and reporting the truth.

Media has always been the bane of many governments.

I know. When the media carabinieri of Fidel Valdez Ramos were drawing up scenarios on what FVR would do as president – he had virtually won the elections but had not yet ascended to the presidency – their big problem was media. Media had to be won over, wooed, serenaded, wined, dined if not womaned. If that still did not work, or fell short of expectations, then the ante would have to be enriched. Dossiers would be assembled on the lives of "errant" media personalities, who would then be persuaded to "do the right thing." If still even that would not work, then money and the offer of high-salaried perks would. Big time corruption always worked.

Before that, when I was spokesman and press secretary of President Corazon Aquiino, I immediately beheaded the practice or tradition of Malacañang to allocate or distribute "envelopes" to selected members of media. And this included choice members of the Malacañang Press corps.

Some powerful or influential newspaper columnists, TV and radio broad-casters were in the list. I was incensed. All this had to be stopped and I stopped it.

Although my "approval rating" in media certainly dipped, it worked. And it possibly worked because Cory Aquino, who then enjoyed massive popularity, supported me. But as the years dwindled and the "Cory magic" dissipated, intrigues against me popped to the surface. I was at one time accused of looting half a million pesos from the coffers of the Office of the Press Secretary.

This was a complete falsehood, of course. And I naturally survived.

President Ferdinand Marcos had a particular dislike of media. Almost a paranoia. In 1972, before he declared martial rule, he blamed media, particularly foreign media, for the thicket of political thorns that disfigured and uglified his presidency. No wonder. In no time at all, he staged a coup on himself, launched a dictatorship that was to last till 1986.

He and his information minister then Francisco Tatad backed media against a wall, castrated local or domestic media, sought to immobilize foreign media. He failed in the latter, as foreign media which I was soon to organize into the Foreign Corespondents’ Association of the Philippines stood its ground and fought the dictatorship with might and main.

The crafty dictator did everything to break us up – and failed. He often looked at me askance, me a Filipino heading the foreign press in residence, but fell short of threatening my life. He sent contingents from the BIR, Labor, City Hall, thugs from Metro Manila military intelligence, to harass me and my staff, frighten us, break my spirit. He failed.

And so now this government ploy opening media ownership to foreigners could have the same aim. Bust all of us to kingdom come.

No, Ma’am, that won’t work. In the end, if this ploy succeeds first by amending the Constitution, and then your political plug-uglies in Congress passing the law to cede media to foreigners, you’ll be digging your own grave.

Take this from this oldtimer. If Ferdinand Marcos, the Master Merlin himself, couldn’t do it. Then you can’t.

* * *

It’s right there at the corner, the debates between President George W. Bush and John Kerry. They will start Friday morning, Manila time, and they could very well decide who will be the next president of the United States.

The odds say that George W. Bush is the favorite. He’s whipsmart, they say, straight as a ramrod as the only political gladiator who can defend America against international terrorism. In his hands, America is safe because, as the argument goes, he has the weapons, the steed, the character, the only face America can wear in fighting terrorism. A face that never flinches.

The Democrats have very powerful arguments, but until now they can’t seem to massively dent the Republican armor. Bush lied, never told America the truth, as he beguiled the nation, betrayed America’s allies, particularly the United Nations, by waging preemptive war on Iraq. Iraq, it turned out, never possessed weapons of mass destruction, had no organizational links with Osama bin Laden and his al- Qaida, did not even have the beginnings of a nuclear arsenal to speak of. And now bogged down in violence-struck Iraq, Bush has no exit strategy. American soldiers are dying by the day, the American-designed "sovereign" Iraqi government led by Alyat Allawi, a "fiasco" Iraqis themselves are sworn to destroy.

The Republicans and John Kerry will extricate the US from the trap that is Iraq, so they aver. In six months’ time if Kerry should become president, US troops will start withdrawing from Iraq. America will have to go back to the first principles of its Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, a portion of the Declaration which states that "These truths are self-evident that all men are created equal, and so endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The claim is that the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party has hijacked America and with Bush in the lead is bringing the nation to perdition.

The debates will be hard-fought all right. Neither can afford to falter and flicker. John Kerry will have to break Bush’s claim that only he can stand up for America today in a world of terrorism which he says John Kerry does not understand. It’s a matter of character, Bush argues, and Kerry does not have the granite to face the enemy down in a war that will engage all of America’s resources. America will fight, will stay the course, will never abandon Iraq, the future "democratic citadel" that will spread all over the Middle East. So says Bush.

These are strong words, brave words, heart-warming words.

But they will have to be tested against what happens on the ground during what remains of the pre-election period. Daily the Iraqi insurgents kill, terrify and destroy. Surveys reveal that the majority of Iraqis hate and revile America and would want them to leave. Instead of decreasing, the insurgents spread the web of terror by kidnapping, then beheading most of their hostages including Americans before the tell-tale television lenses of al-Jazeera, the Arab TV network.

There is no sign the turbulence will abate. On the contrary, life in Iraq is hell, and many innocent civilians are killed in the crossfire. There is today more popular hate against America, more bile. Even the official pretenses of the White House that things are improving in Iraq are belied by US intelligence agencies which report the opposite . Many Americans see no hope for their country in Iraq.

How all these will add up during the presidential debates will demonstrate the power of TV. Bush? Kerry? We shall see.