Mercado: Where vultures gather

Saturday, September 24, 2011

THIS one is for Ripley’s ”Believe It Or Not.” Over 400 so-called “media representatives” cram Manila’s customs beat, writes columnist Boo Chanco. This “Customs press corps” is seven times foreign and local reporters accredited by Malacañang. It equals 408 newspapers (32 are dailies) in the provinces.

At the new customs port in Sasa, Davao, “Friday boys” are known as warik-warik. They “list media men for funding,” Jun Ledesma of Sun.Star Davao wrote. I “was also told some can even facilitate release of shipments.”

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

The dictionary first logged in the word “journalist” in 1693. This meant “a writer or editor for a news medium.” Or “a writer who aims at a mass audience.” But “fixer” for Customs shakedown was never part of the job.

On the Customs beat, we stumble across a unique Philippine creation---and problem: the “block timers.”

These “walk-in customers” sport oversize “press” cards. At any of the country’s 952 radio stations, they can buy airtime. With no questions asked, they broadcast-–what?

News and comment, they claim. Character assassination or praise, for a price, their critics counter. They “give us the opinion of the uneducated that brings us in touch with the ignorance of the community,” Oscar Wilde once wrote.

Block-timers rarely indicate who picks up their tab. But those praised-–or shellacked-–give a fair idea of who pays. Stations wash their hands, by saying: “the program does not reflect the management’s view.” Basta.

Like pseudo-print reporters, “block timers” plague the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng Pilipinas (KBP), Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility noted earlier. Some 25 percent finished high school while 13 percent “had no record of educational attainment.”

There’s scant training on objectivity, balance, fairness. Most “operate in a moral wasteland, where facts are few and comments bear a price tag. Broadcast gun slinging compounds print media abuse.”

Power without responsibility has been the prerogative of the harlot through the ages,” Irish statesman Stanley Baldwin wrote.

KBP imposed fines on members for intrusive coverage and obstruction of police work during the Luneta hostage crisis. Eight Hong Kong tourists died. The Philippines today still copes with diplomatic spillover.

“A mere slap on the wrist,” fumed Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Maybe so. But this was a 180-degree turn for KBP from the Chavez vs. National Telecommunications Commission case of February 2008. In an en banc decision, the Supreme Court lashed at KBP for playing along with the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime’s gags on the “Hello Garci” tapes.

Perhaps, KBP can take a hard look at the farce of 400 Customs reporters and ask: how much electronic gunslinging is done, if any, by block timers, on KBP member-stations? That’d reinforce earlier reform measures.

Touch base with publishers of major papers and network managers, mint-new Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon has been advised They can help sift out those who moonlight as fixers.

Indeed, “our membership lists remain porous,” observed a Cebu Press Freedom Week editorial. “We’ve still to flush out hao-shiaos who flaunt press cards or block time microphones.

“If Biazon keeps his nose clean, he should not be afraid of pseudo-journalists, even if they threaten him,” Chanco said. Most of their rags have no circulation. “Past officials tolerated this outsized number of reporters” because they hid dirt.

“Where the carcass lies, there will the vultures gather.”

(juanlmercado@gmail.com)