And Columbia president Lee Bollinger does not hide the fact that the Ivy League school is counting on Coronel’s expertise and experience to do to the university’s new center what she did to to the PCIJ, now the premier investigative reporting institution in the Philippines and Asia.
During the Sept. 26 inauguration of the Center, Dean Nicholas Lemann of Columbia’s School of Journalism told some 300 faculty members, students and media practitioners that during the search for an inaugural director, he personally persuaded Coronel–who was recommended by a Washington journalist familiar with the Filipina’s impressive body of work–to fly to New York and join other contenders for an interview with Columbia’s Committee on Faculty Appointment.
"The committee members were not only impressed by her track record," Lemann recalls, "they were also blown away by the force of Sheila’s personality and vision."
Coronel, a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, has an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of the Philippines and a masters in political sociology from the London School of Economics.
Among those who welcomed her at the inaugural ceremony was Toni Stabile, herself an award-winning investigative journalist who gave Columbia a $5 million endowment to train future investigative reporters as part of the university’s graduate degree curriculum, as well as award fellowships to its leading students.
In accepting her appointment, Coronel gave her audience a glimpse of her challenging career, starting as a young reporter traumatized by news censorship during the last years of the Marcos regime, to the birth of PCIJ that exposed abuses and corruption both in the government and the military.
"When my colleagues and I formed the PCIJ in 1989, we were working from a borrowed office with second-hand equipment and no paid staff except for a secretary," she told an awed crowd. "We did long, probing stories and sold these to newspapers. Later, we got some funding to give out grants that allowed other journalists to work on investigations under our direction. Our stories got attention. Some forced the resignations of officials, including several Cabinet members and one Supreme Court justice."
In a one-on-one interview with StTARweek following the inauguration, Coronel talks about the state of Philippine journalism, the Arroyo presidency and her decision to leave the Philippines at a time when credible and uncorrupted mediamen like her are much needed.
Starweek: What made you decide to accept the Columbia University offer?
Coronel: I have been executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism for 16 years. I thought it was time to move on, to allow the organization to grow without me. I didn’t think it was healthy for someone to head PCIJ for that long. And of course, the Columbia offer was very difficult to turn down. It was a chance to start something new, to take up a new challenge, and in one of the greatest cities in the world at that.
Q: Are you abandoning your practice as an investigative journalist to concentrate on being an educator?
A: I hope to practice journalism even as I teach.
Q: What will happen now to PCIJ without you?
A: The PCIJ will continue. It has a committed staff and board. It has a pool of reportorial talent.
There continues to be a need for investigative reporting in the Philippines and elsewhere. The PCIJ will continue to provide a home to journalists who want to report on issues in depth. I am still on the PCIJ’s board, but obviously cannot attend board meetings anymore. But I have promised to help PCIJ in whatever way I can.
Q: You left the Philippines when the country needs journalists like you.
A: There are many responsible and brilliant journalists still in the country. What a conceit to think that Philippine journalism is crippled without me.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing journalists today, especially in the Philippines?
A: Journalists, especially investigative journalists, are working in increasingly narrow spaces, hemmed in by the demands of the market on one hand and the restrictions imposed by states on the other. The challenge is how to preserve and expand these spaces to enable more watchdog reporting.
In the Philippines, the most immediate problem is the wanton killing of journalists and the government’s seeming inability to provide the press with protection from attack.
Q: Is the Philippines still among the freest press in the world?
A: The Philippine press is free in the sense that journalists in Manila can generally report without censorship or intimidation. In some parts of the country, however, that is not the case. The Philippines is better than many countries in terms of constitutional and legal guarantees for the press. There is also wide public support for a free press.
Q: With all the killings and harassment of journalists in the Philippines, do you think working as a journalist in the Philippines is still a good career choice?
A: The killings are worrisome, but generally they take place outside the big cities. Journalism is still very much a viable profession in the Philippines. Many young people still want to have jobs in the media. The Philippine media are powerful and influential. Filipino journalists have clout and can influence public policy for the better. Journalists can do a great deal for the public good if they do their jobs right. It is still a profession worth getting into.
Q: How many times have you been threatened or harassed because of your work? How did you handle it?
A: For the most part, I have not been threatened. There were times, rare,when we got threats. The most recent was the threat of a search warrant on the PCIJ office–we had to change locks and evacuate our sensitive files, back up our computers, etc. I’ve also had to face multiple lawsuits. Several of them have been dismssed. I think I have five or six pending. All of these are harassment suits. I expect they will be dismissed.
How do you handle it? You just grin and bear it. It’s part of the job description.
Q: Are you willing to die for a story?
A: No. No story is worth a journalist’s life.
Q: What do you say to journalists who get threats?
A: The PCIJ did a manual on how journalists can protect themselves against threats and ensure their safety. There’s a long list of protective measures. Journalists should take threats seriously and protect themselves accordingly. They should take precautions if needed and even lie low or relocate if the threats are serious.
Q: What are your frustrations as a journalist in the Philippines? And what’s the best thing?
A: The competitive media market that makes it difficult to find a space for serious journalism. The fixation, particularly of TV, with ratings.
The best thing about doing journalism in the Philippines is you can make an impact: people resign because you exposed the wrongdoing they did; investigations are conducted; policies are changed.
Q: What do you think of the presidency of Gloria Arroyo? Why do many people seem to dislike her?
A: This is a difficult question to answer. The main problem hounding Mrs. Arroyo now is the question of her legitimacy as president and the lingering doubts about the conduct of the 2004 elections. These will hound her till the end of her term. Mrs. Arroyo is charisma-challenged. Unfortunately for her, Filipinos want charismatic presidents.
Q: Despite calls for her to step down, why do you think President Arroyo remains in power? Does it prove her strength or popularity?
A: You need five pages to answer this question. There are many reasons why President Arroyo remains in Malacañang: she knows how to hang on to power; the opposition is divided and unable to provide a viable alternative; the prospect of Noli de Castro becoming president unnerves the middle class; and people are tired of going to the streets to protest. They’ve become cynical and Mrs Arroyo benefits from that cynicism.
Q: In your opinion, is it time for her to go?
A: I think that Mrs. Arroyo will remain president till 2010.
Q: What should President Arroyo do to convince the people that she should stay in power?
A: The President has shown the capacity to hang on to power regardless of what Filipinos think. Whether or not she reforms, she can remain in Malacañang. She knows this. The only thing she has to do is keep Congress and the military top brass on her side.
Q: What’s the possibility of President Arroyo suffering the same fate as that of Thailand’s ousted prime minister?
A: Mrs. Arroyo is president as long as the military wants her to be. A Thai scenario is plausible if the chief of staff and the other service commanders turn against the president. That is why Mrs. Arroyo has ensured they remain loyal.
Q: What can the Filipino people do to help the country move forward?
A: They should do what they can, wherever they are, to uplift the conditions of the less fortunate and to work for political reforms that will solve the problems of our flawed democracy.
Q: Name three major stories or exposes you are most proud of.
A: The series of reports on Estrada’s unexplained wealth and the mansions he was building for his mistresses; the series published in 1997 on corruption in the Supreme Court; and the study on the composition of Congress published in 2004.
Q: Name three of your most favorite interviewees and why.
A: Imelda Marcos–she acts like a diva and says the craziest things; Cory Aquino–she goes straight to the point and tries to earnestly answer every question thrown at her; and Rene Saguisag–he agonizes all the time.
Q: Name at least three people you look up to in the field of journalism.
A: Eggie Apostol, Lorna Kalaw Tirol, Malou Mangahas, Howie Severino, Marites Vitug, David Celdran, Glenda Gloria, Ceres Doyo, Luis Teodoro, Cecile Balgos, the PCIJ writers, Maria Ressa, Che-Che Lazaro and others who work hard and get the story despite the odds.