Media: Washing our dirty linen in public?

I was watching the Senate investigation on the role of media during the botched Aug.23rd hostage crisis with famous TV personalities like Ms. Maria Reesa, Vice-President of ABS-CBN’s News and Current Affairs; Ms. Jessica Soho of GMA-7; and Ms. Luchi Cruz Valdez of Channel 5. The Senators, led by Sen. President Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Joker Arroyo and Sen. Gringo Honasan all wanted to know if there was some kind of culpability by the media on that fateful day, where thanks to satellite communication, a local hostage taking has become an international incident. Thanks to local TV networks that gave footages to CNN and BBC, the whole world saw this very humiliating episode.

What is very clear here is that the Manila Peninsula incident of Nov.29, 2007 which resulted with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the media coming up with some kind of memorandum agreement on how media ought to conduct itself during crisis situations (because of the national howl at the way the media conducted itself during the takeover incident), clearly, whatever protocols that were made after that incident where thrown out the window during the Aug.23rd incident.

Notice that amongst the media outlets, only TV and broadcast media were invited in that Senate investigation. That’s because the print media by its very nature, cannot disturb an ongoing crisis situation. But the advent of satellite communication live TV and radio broadcast can bring the news into your living rooms, hence the responsibility of media on these cases falls on the TV and radio broadcasters. Now whether these reports have gotten some kind of hostile environment training, the ladies representing the media say that they have gone into such training.

As a member of media, I too was aghast at the widespread live reporting of the Aug.23rd incident, not because it is the fault of media, because we in the media always insists that we are merely the messengers of the good or bad news, but rather because of the keystone cop way that the PNP Swat team botched that rescue attempt. If that hostage situation was resolved successfully, meaning the hostage taker was captured or kill and no hostages killed, then the media wouldn’t be put in the hot seat by the Senate and the whole world would have rejoiced with us!

But I do agree that at one point, the media should get together to set the proper guidelines on how to conduct a coverage of such sensitive nature, so that the media will no longer become a tool in laundering our dirty linen in public or in the eyes of the world.

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I have always maintained and seriously believed that the ills of this country have its roots on our lack of justice, from the time of the Marcos Dictatorship up to the present. If there is anything woefully sad in this country, it is that we do not have funds for the most important government agencies that the Filipino needs. If we are poor, it is due to the reality that the Department of Education (DepEd) despite the fact that it gets the biggest pie in the nation’s budget, still cannot deliver the basics for the educational needs of our people. Hence, more poor people who need to be educated are stuck in that cycle of poverty.

I don’t have to remind Pres. Aquino that the Filipino electorate voted him to the Presidency based on a lot of hope that he can deliver his campaign promise in fighting corruption and rid our people from the scourge of poverty. He also made a correlation between corruption and poverty. Hence these are two major problems that the Aquino administration must address and give utmost importance if he wants to have a Chinaman’s chance in achieving his monumental goals.

This brings us to the issue of the Supreme Court’s request for a higher budget for the year 2011 to the tune of P27.1 billion. It seems that Malacañang is only planning to give P14.3 billion to the Judiciary, which is less than half what the Judiciary really wants and needs. It is time for to give the Judiciary its due so we will see more cases settled faster and we shall help the Judiciary solve the problems of the so-called “Rogues in Robes.”

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda insists that they cannot give any more increases to the Judiciary because the Judiciary has kept secret the amount of its Judicial Development Fund (IDF). But isn’t this for the Judiciary to know? After all, aren’t they a separate and co-equal in power with the Executive and Legislative? Whatever their differences are, it is time for the Judiciary to be given these funds so finally we can truly make the slow wheels of justice move a little bit faster under the Aquino administration.

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